


Half Smiles of the Decomposed

by angledust



Category: Manhunt (Video Games)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-01
Updated: 2013-12-26
Packaged: 2017-12-16 18:35:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 15
Words: 52,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/865285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angledust/pseuds/angledust
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Even after it's all over, Danny still wants his past back. And you can never get rid of Leo. Leo/Danny</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A/N - Hi everyone! This is a re-upload of a story I took down a couple of months ago to edit, so if you recognise it that's why. There isn't a lot of new content, it's mostly edited for grammar and word choice. I will try to upload a chapter a day through July. The title is taken from a Guided by Voices song, you should check them out. Warnings for violence and occasional non-consensual sexual content. Please review! Hope you enjoy!

 

Daniel Lamb crouched in the shadows. Ahead, light spilled out across the tarmac from the window of a small cabin. A figure moved inside, but apart from this one man the place was finally deserted. A thin sliver of moon hung high in the sky, the only other light besides the cabin. It faded out behind the clouds. Back tight against the wall, Danny inched closer to the gate to the loading yard. The only way in or out. A breath of cold wind brushed his back and he glanced around. Nothing. Reaching the edge of the wall, he half-turned and peered through the bars. The truck he had seen being loaded up earlier stood there, towers of crates dotted around the yard behind it. In the distance a long three-story building loomed out of the darkness. There was something he needed here, something he could almost remember. Had the project kept records here? If he could get to them there was a chance he could prove his innocence, that he wasn’t responsible for this mess. Prove what they had done to him.

He slipped back and took off his glasses, rubbing his eyes. He just had to wait for the right moment, and stay alert. Easier said than done. He had barely slept since he arrived in town. That breeze started up again, the cold air slicing through his thin shirt. He shivered and moved closer to the wall.

A door slammed. It took all of Danny's self-control to only turn his head. The driver jumped down from the steps to the cabin and strolled leisurely towards the gate. Danny shrank further back into the shadows, flattening himself against the wall. He held his breath as the man stopped close to him. The driver typed in the code on the keypad one-handed. Danny strained to see, but the mans’ other hand, holding his cigarette, blocked his view. The gate beeped and the driver gave it a shove as it slid slowly open. He flicked his cigarette behind him, and walked through.

It landed next to Danny. For a heartbeat he was somewhere else. He saw a barrel, a man next to it and he felt himself throw that cigarette. Then everything was bright white light and screaming and the smell of burning meat filled his lungs.

The world came back into focus. Danny forced himself to stay still. Kept his breath slow and silent. Another flashback, at the worst fucking time. He heard the driver unlock the truck door. No time to worry about it now. The truck’s engine started up. Ok, wait, wait for the truck, slip in behind it.

Danny edged closer to the gate. Stood still as the truck rumbled through the opening. He saw the driver close enough to reach out and touch. The vehicle rolled by and he couldn’t move, just stood there frozen. He was going to miss his chance. He forced himself to take a step forward. A second too soon. The engine cut out.

“Hey!”

Danny darted through the gap. The open space was full of stacks of crates and he ran behind the first one, desperately looking around for somewhere to hide, barely able to see in the darkness.

“Come back here!”

Danny heard the driver running behind him. A light flashed on in the building ahead, shining out across the yard. Danny froze. Through the stacks he glimpsed a door open and a man step out. The man wore a black suit and had a black cloth covering his face. He held a crowbar. He didn’t look like a security guard. Spotting Danny he started to jog towards him.

Danny ran, sprinted across the space, weaving between the boxes. There wasn’t room to lose his pursuers. The courtyard was too small. Panicking he ran for the corner, knowing as he did he was allowing himself to be boxed in. He stopped. Turned full circle in the triangle. He could hear the hunters coming from both directions. Two brick walls and nowhere to go. It was over.

“Danny!” a voice hissed. A hand stuck out from above the nearest stack of crates. Without thinking Danny grabbed it and allowed himself to be pulled up. There was a space about halfway up the stack, just above head-height, covered in shadow and almost invisible. He felt a body close behind him as he turned to look below.

Danny watched as the driver came running into view, stopped and looked around him. The man in the suit came around the corner a second later, raising his crowbar and smacking the driver in the jaw. The driver fell to the ground, skidding a few steps with the force of the blow.

“Oh fuck,” Suit-man said. He walked away to look around the crates, and then came back to the wounded driver. The driver lay on his side. His jaw hung lopsided from his face. Blood bubbled out as he breathed and splattered over the grey floor. His eyes had a glazed faraway look but they came back to earth as he looked up at the crates. Danny shrank back. The driver’s eyes flickered to Suit-man. A breathy moaning sound broke the silence. “Sorry buddy.” Suit-man brought his crowbar down twice more. He stood and looked down a minute before walking away slowly, glancing around him, on edge, out of sight of Danny’s hiding place.

Danny realised whoever was behind him had his hand over his mouth. He could hear his breathing in his ear. He could smell him. He knew he recognised him, but for a moment he couldn’t grasp who it was. Then he started to struggle.

“Stay still or we’re both dead.”

Danny knew Suit-man wouldn’t be far away. He had to control himself. He stayed still in the darkness and felt his anger welling up in him. Sick at being so close. He pushed the hand away, moved to the edge of the crates and made to jump down. Then he grabbed behind him, used all his strength to pull Leo forward, sending him into the air before him.

He landed on top, shoving his knee into Leo’s neck. He grabbed for Leo’s hands, pushed forward, all his weight on his enemy’s throat.

Leo wrenched one of his hands from Danny’s grasp and punched him in the face. Stunned, he let go, back hitting the floor as Leo shoved him off.

Danny scrambled up. The world span and he looked around for Leo. He was gone. Danny stumbled forwards between the rows of crates. Hearing a noise he looked up and saw someone, the man in the suit - Watchdogs, that’s what they’re called - running towards him. Oh fuck. Of course Leo wasn’t here. He couldn’t be. What the fuck was he thinking?

Danny turned and darted away through the stacks, towards the gates. As he ran the floor slipped away from under him. He was back in the asylum and there was noise all around. A hundred inmates all screaming like animals. Screaming for his blood. Danny saw himself as though in a dream. He was dressed in a green jumpsuit, his blonde hair newly shaved. He saw the fear in his own eyes. Leo was standing in front of him, dressed the same as him. Leo looked the same as always. Same height as him, a little bulkier. About the same age, though his prematurely lined face made him look older.  His dark hair wasn’t shaved. How had he not noticed that at the time? The expression on Leo’s face was softer than usual. “It’ll be ok Danny. It’ll be ok.” He was repeating the words over and over. He put his hands on Danny’s shoulders. Then Danny was lying on the floor and he could see Leo’s face above him and there was something heavy on his neck and he couldn’t breathe.

The wall hit his back hard, and Leo was in front of him, hands around his throat. Danny pushed up with his feet, gasping the cold air into his lungs.

“Quiet,” Leo demanded. His eyes were on the gate. Danny could hear footsteps coming closer.

“You killed her.” Danny’s voice was a hoarse whisper, but he would have screamed it if he could.

“Not exactly,” Leo said. He dropped one hand to his pocket. Took out a flick knife which shone and cut through the dark. Danny tensed.

Leo shoved him out of the shadows and to the floor as the watchdog rounded the corner.

“Dr Lamb.” The watchdog’s eyes were smiling. Danny looked up at the pistol levelled at his face. Behind the dog Leo stepped out of the shadows. He approached swiftly and silently. Leo grabbed the man’s hair, wrenching his head back and drawing a neat red line across his throat.

Danny saw the gun fall from the Watchdog’s hand. He grabbed it, jumped up and ran. His feet pounded across the tarmac. This was all a bad dream, and he would wake up in a minute. Except he didn’t really believe that, so he ran. Looking for the way out. The gas station. He took the first turning he came too and ran up an alleyway, past overflowing bins and piles of bent cardboard. In the darkness at the end of the alley he followed the corner round to see it just headed back the same way. No way out, nowhere to hide.

He stepped back, back to the wall. He could hear footsteps, not running, not hurried. He had the gun. He waited, let him come.

Leo walked around the corner and Danny shot him in the face.

Leo didn’t make a noise, or at least Danny didn’t hear him over the gunshot. He opened his mouth, his eyes opened wider and he fell.

Danny watched Leo stop moving. He tossed the gun to the side. All of a sudden he felt like his limbs couldn’t hold him up. He sank down staring at the body. Leo lay on his side, eyes wide open and staring back at him. The gunshot wound was in the centre of his forehead. It leaked blood, across one eye, following the line of his cheekbone down to the ground. There was a puddle forming under his head, oil under his dark hair.

Danny turned and looked the other way. He couldn’t deal with this. Was he going crazy? Or crazier? Because Leo couldn’t be lying there dead. He had already killed him.

Danny heard a scraping sound and looked up. Leo had reached over and was picking up the gun. Danny watched as Leo sat up, propping himself on one elbow and touched his fingers to the hole in his head, which was rapidly closing up. Leo glanced at him, brushing the blood from his eye. “For Christ’s sake, just don’t vomit.”

Danny leaned to his side and vomited. He hadn’t eaten today, so it was mainly water and bile. He put his head in his hands again. “This isn’t real,” he muttered to himself.

“That’s right,” Leo said soothingly. “It’s not real.” He stood up.

“I killed you.”

Leo got close to the wall, looking round the corner back to the yard. Then he pocketed the gun and stepped towards Danny.

“You can’t kill me, anymore than I can kill you. It’s just not that easy.”

“I killed you, at the graveyard. I got rid of you.” Maybe if he kept repeating it, it would get through.

“Then why am I here. You can’t kill something that’s in your head Danny.” Leo reached out, as though to tap Danny on the head for emphasis, but Danny flinched away. “You tried to hide me away, but I got out, and I was stronger than you, like I am now.” Leo smiled, looking down at him. “And you created this new identity. David Joiner? Hope Street? Fuck’s sake.”

Danny was silent, sat on the cold tarmac, and Leo took a step away, leaning back against the wall, looking down at him.

“How many times have you woken up on that road Danny?”

“What are you talking about?” Danny had a sick feeling in his chest. Leo knew too much about this. He remembered that night in his new apartment, when the first memory had come back to him. Abbie, her face, her voice, her smell. He had been so happy to remember something, finally. He knew he would spend the rest of his life trying to find her. It was only after he had arrived back in the city that he remembered she was dead.

Leo was still talking. “You keep coming back. You can’t let it go and you just come back and get yourself killed over and over. God it’s pathetic.”

Danny looked at him, confused and Leo sighed. “Look, I’ll make it simple for you. I won. You didn’t. I’ve been living the life you wanted. I’ve been sleeping with your wife, playing with your kids. I even went fishing with Michael. It’s been fun.”

Danny was silent trying to process what Leo was saying. Abbie was dead. So was Michael. Leo had killed them both. His kids? Well they were still out there somewhere. If Leo had been anywhere near them… How could he? Leo couldn’t be anywhere, outside of him.

“Hey! Anyone there?” A woman’s voice called out.

Leo held up his hand for silence and looked around the corner. Then he stepped back and took out his gun. “I’ll deal with this. Then we’ll go get a beer and I‘ll explain everything.”

“Fuck you.” Danny said. He wasn’t sure what was going on, whether Leo was a hallucination or worse, but whatever he was he was not going for a beer with him. 

Danny heard footsteps coming their way. He moved past Leo and glanced around the corner, down the alley. There was a girl, in her late teens; Danny had seen her when he came in, the cashier at the gas station. She shone a flashlight up and down the alley. She walked slowly, obviously fearful of what she might find. She must have seen the body.

“I said, I’ll take care of this.” Leo had his hand on Danny’s shoulder, pushing him out the way. He raised the gun.

Danny grabbed Leo’s arm. “We can go the other way. Get out behind her. She won’t see.” It felt wrong trying to reason with Leo. This was the man who had killed his wife. Still, he had to try.

“Why? You going soft on me killer?” Leo smiled, his voice somewhere between fake confusion and contempt.

And it was pointless. Leo didn’t care that this girl was not a threat. Danny looked at the gun. He could make a grab for it, but killing Leo didn’t appear to be a workable long-term solution.

The footsteps were coming closer. Danny looked back at the other way out of the alley. Maybe he should make a run for it now while he could. But he couldn’t just run and let Leo kill the girl. And he had to admit, he wanted to know what Leo had to say, what the hell was going on. “If we leave now I’ll get a drink with you, whatever you want, ok?”

Leo grinned at him. “Of course you will.” He turned abruptly and ran the other way down the alley. After a second’s hesitation Danny followed him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about any strange half sentences, AO3 is messing up my paragraphs.

The bar was just down the street from the gas station, probably the same place the trucker had drunk at. The smell of smoke and damp greeted Danny as he descended the stairs. He eyed the patrons nervously from across the dimly lit room. Men who came here every night, who had nowhere else to be. They turned hostile eyes to the two of them as Leo led the way from the door to the bar. Danny glanced down at his sleeve and tried to turn it up to hide the blood splatter. He caught up with Leo at the bar and saw it was pointless. Leo still had blood congealing in his hair. It had dried across his cheek where he had missed wiping it away, and left a pale red streak. His collar and the shoulder of his shirt were soaked.

The bartender looked hard at Leo, glanced at Danny, then looked back at Leo.

“You boys better not be planning on starting anything,” he said, warning plain in his voice.

Leo ignored that and ordered a beer while Danny looked around them.

Most of the cramped space was filled with tables. On one side, a long bar ran along the wall, meeting a raised stage with tatty red curtains at the far end. Next to him Leo turned and leaned back against the bar. His eyes settled on an empty table in the back and then trailed around the room, examining the customers and daring anyone to take their table.

Danny turned back to the bar. What the fuck was he doing here? If anyone had told him this was how his day would end, getting a drink with his undead ex evil half, he would have told them... well he didn’t know what he would have told them. He hadn’t really talked to anyone in a long time. Not since he arrived-

“And you?”

Danny was startled by the bartender’s question. “Huh?”

“Are you going to order?”

Leo smirked.

“You want me to do it for you?”

“Same as him, please” Danny said quickly. The bartender’s question bothered him. It was not until the drinks were set down in front of them that he realised why. The bartender could see both of them. That meant for certain that Leo wasn’t a hallucination, and wasn’t just in his head. He was real and he was here.

Leo led the way quickly across to the table. Danny had to speed up to keep up with him. Leo had always had this way of seeming like he had something better to do. Like time was short, so Danny had better hurry up.

Danny sat down at the opposite end of the table to Leo. Leo raised his glass and took a long gulp of his beer. Danny didn’t. “What's going on?”

Leo looked a little pissed off at Danny’s interruption of his drinking, as though he expected some small talk before getting down to business. Then he smiled. Danny remembered Leo’s smile not really fitting. His face suited anger better than happiness.  It had always seemed a little forced, just cover for a snarl. “Danny, you remember your life before the experiment? Was it anything like this?” Leo gestured around at the bar.

Danny looked around at the patrons of the bar. There was not a person in here that looked like they didn’t enjoy a murder or two at the weekend.

Leo leaned across the table. “Man-dog hunters, a government agency whose experiments involve iron maidens and electric chairs, a world where everyone is willing to kill at the drop of a beer can. Don’t you think all this is a bit extreme? This isn’t reality Danny. It’s fucking insane.”

“How would you know?”

Leo sat back, and took a long drink. Danny watched him. Had he gone out drinking with Leo before the asylum? Had they been friends? Was this how Leo had got him to trust him, convinced him to expose the project? Danny didn’t remember much about that time. He had trusted him though, he didn’t know why. He had believed every word he said, he had killed, and put his family in danger for him.

Leo put down his glass. “I know because I won Danny, don’t you remember that? No, of course you don’t remember. Just forget, that’s your solution to everything. Well you can’t forget me.”

Danny wanted to punch Leo into the ground, over and over. He wanted that shovel back, he would do the job right this time. He stared at Leo, hating him for drawing it out. For every fucking thing he had done. Hating himself for listening to him. This was the man who had killed his wife. He shouldn’t be just sitting here. But he needed to know. To be sure there wasn’t any truth to this. He couldn’t take chances with his family’s lives again. So he asked calmly. “What are you saying happened?”

Leo settled back in his chair. “After I killed you, I woke up in Dixmor. The real Dixmor, nothing like here. Nice place, they keep it much cleaner than in your head.  Apparently I- we- were in a coma for three weeks. The bridge malfunctioned right after they stuck it in your head. No-one knows why, or if they do they’re not saying, but that’s probably why I’m here, so it’s not so bad. Whyte told me that they had removed the bridge and that should have been you out of my head. Or me out of your head, well that’s what they thought… But I knew you were still in there somewhere. I could feel you.” Leo paused and drank another mouthful. “This is fucking rat piss. Haven’t you ever had a decent beer?” Danny ignored him and Leo sighed and went on. “Well, that’s it. Since then I've been enjoying myself, living my life…”

The most important thing.

“What about Abigail and the kids?”

“They're fine.” Leo looked slightly uncomfortable for the first time as he said it. Danny didn’t know if that was a good thing or not, or if that meant it was true or not.

“Really?”

“As far as I know.”

Danny was silent for a minute.

“I’ve been in a coma for three weeks? I was in Dixmor for six years.”

“You need me to spell it out for you?”

“Yes.”

“Everything since the operation. All of this, it’s just in your head. There‘s a whole other world out there.”

Danny was quiet, thinking. He was wary. He hadn’t expected to actually _want_ to believe that Leo was telling the truth. He looked around the bar. He had to admit, he didn’t want this to be his life. If his family could be out there somewhere, unharmed... It was too good to be true.  All his instincts told him not to trust Leo. He had trusted him before, where had that got him? He sat and tried to figure it out. What reason did Leo have to lie? Then again, what reason did he have to tell the truth? “Why are you telling me this?”

A pounding music track started up, silencing the drunks and distracting both of them. All the lights in the bar went off and two spotlights on stage came on, one after the other. The audience gave a muted round of applause as the curtains jerked to the side. They revealed a woman with long ice blonde hair in the middle of the stage, wearing a lot of lingerie. She stripped slowly as she danced. The crowd started to cheer. Danny glanced at Leo, who was watching the show with mild interest. Leo went to take a drink, noticed him looking and grinned back. The crowd roared, and Danny looked up to see a man walk on stage, naked. He looked like an average guy, except for his massive cock. Quickly he pulled the woman towards him and lifted her up. She wrapped her legs around his waist and slid down onto his cock, jerking her head back and smiling at the audience. They thrust up and down for a bit, and then a second man walked onstage, jerking his cock. The crowd cheered wildly. He looked like some random tramp they dragged in off the street, but his cock was even bigger then the first guys. He walked up behind the woman, and spat on his prick. The crowd cheered again.

Danny finally downed some of his beer and then focused on his glass. When he looked up, a few minutes later, Leo was staring, not at the stage, but at him.  Danny glanced at the performers. The group had moved to the back of the stage, pushing up against the wall. He looked away and Leo caught his eye.

“Why so shy? This is what you wanted isn’t it?” Leo said, loudly over the music and noise of the crowd.

“What are you talking about?”

Leo leaned in. “I’ve lived your life. The project is just well, a project, you work for the government testing weapons. Maybe a little dodgy ethically but they don’t torture people, they don’t have a secret militia. All this, was just dreamed up by your sick little subconscious, you created it. I have to admit, it is fucking impressive.”

Leo stopped to look back at the stage, where a section of the audience had taken to heckling the performers.

“This is shit!”

“Fuck her where we can see! Don’t be a pussy.”

One table was particularly full of hecklers, apparently oblivious to the aggressive looks they were getting from the table next door.

“Your head.” Danny said.

“What?” Leo asked.

Danny leaned forward, over half the table.

“This is all your influence on my mind.”

Leo smiled at him. “Yeah?

“It all started when the Pickman Bridge was put in, I’ve been in a coma since then… If that’s true, this is all you.”

Leo’s smile grew even bigger. “No, I don’t think so.”

Danny paused. “Why?”

“I’m not a real person. Remember, the control personality. I was a chip put in your brain, I had no name, face, personality, anything in here.”  He waved a hand in an arc to indicate the bar. “Comes from you. You created me. You made me who I am.”

There was a scream from the stage as a bottle flew across the room. The front few tables were now all stood up and shouting at each other. The bartender and the doorman hurried past towards the stage.

“You’re not human, well I can believe that.” Danny felt like his mouth and his brain were on different tracks, one didn’t believe a word and one was still trying to process what Leo was saying.

“And I’m still the one on the outside,” Leo said happily. “All this is just your sick fantasy. All the killing, all you. That’s why you shouldn’t blame me for your wife’s death, after all, it really was all your fault.”

Danny lunged across the table at Leo. Leo pulled back out of his way, jumping up. Danny followed him, vaulting over the table. They stood staring at each other for a second, Danny waiting for Leo to attack. He glanced back at the table out of the corner of his eye. He could grab a  glass as a weapon. He had to take Leo down, he knew Leo was the more skilled fighter. On the floor all bets were off.

Leo leapt at him, knocking him to the floor. Danny hit the ground hard. He felt Leo’s weight on top of him and something cold at his throat. He closed his eyes. If he was going to die he was ready for it, he had been for a long time. Then warm breath at his ear. “I’m going to let that one go. But if you ever pull anything like that again I will kill you, understand? Danny opened his eyes as the weight moved off of him. Leo stood and looked towards the stage, where the fight was kicking off. As Danny got up a shot rang out. He ducked. Leo pushed past him, heading towards the door. “Let’s get out of here.”

..................

They burst out onto the street. The same slice of moon still hung in the sky. It surprised Danny to emerge out into the same night. It felt like several days should have passed. His life had turned upside down again in such a short time.

He jogged forward a few steps, then glanced back at the bar. No-one was following. Up ahead, Leo settled into a stroll. He looked back at Danny, grinning. “Your subconscious, it never gets old.” He swung the bottle in his hand slightly as he walked.

Danny followed Leo through the streets, staying carefully out of reach. Why hadn’t Leo killed him? Why was he here telling him this at all? Just to gloat? Leo had saved his life twice in the last hour. Danny knew he had something planned for him, and it couldn’t be good. But he couldn’t  leave, not until he found out the truth.

Leo was silent, seemingly happy to take his time walking through the city.

“Why are you here?” Danny asked eventually.

Leo looked around appreciatively at the nightlife. “I’m bored. Turns out being a respectable family man isn’t all that exciting. Who would have thought it? I miss this place sometimes.” He looked around him, searching for something. “Here, watch this.”

Leo reached for the hand of a scantily dressed young woman as he walked past her, she turned and went along with him a few paces. As she opened her mouth to speak he pushed her off the road into a nearby side street. Hand on her throat he held her against the wall and simultaneously broke the bottle on the wall with his other hand. Danny watched as Leo moved the hand on her neck to cover her mouth. Her hands jerked up to meet his and he stabbed her in the neck with the bottle, just once, twisting it in deep. Dark arterial blood spurted onto his shirt and face. Her eyes rolled back and she shook and he let her go, throwing the bottle to the floor, they hit the ground at the same time. Danny stood and watched, frozen. Leo wiped the blood off his face. Danny looked behind him at the road but no-one seemed to have noticed. Leo pushed past him, back onto the street.

“Can’t do that as you.” Leo was walking faster now, with more purpose. Danny hurried after him.

“Don’t. Just don’t do that. Don’t kill anyone else,” Danny said as he caught up.

“That’s why you keep failing here Danny, You’re not willing to take that final step, not without me anyway.” Leo smiled and gave him a pat on the back. He had been smiling a lot recently, and it seemed genuine, less forced than the last time Danny had seen him. He was actually happy, Danny realised.

Danny flinched away. “If my family are alive. Don’t hurt them. I’ll do anything.”

“I bet you will. You'd do anything for them wouldn’t you?”

“How do I know you haven’t already killed them?” It was the worst thought in Danny’s head. That Leo could kill his wife again. That he could kill his children.

Leo slowed down and looked over at Danny. “Think of it like this, we were in a coma for three weeks, most of that would have been the six years we spent in the funny farm, thanks for that, those were great times by the way. When I killed your wife that would mean I must have been minutes, maybe hours old. Would you call a newborn who killed a murderer?”

“Yes, I mean, that’s not the same thing at all.”

“Of course it is. Remember you chose to put me inside you, sorry if I didn’t come with a fully formed set of morals. My point is, I’ve grown since then. I realise now, killing your wife was wrong. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but it was wrong, ethically I mean. Honestly I quite like your wife, she’s a tiger in the sack.”

Danny was silent for a moment. “I just saw you kill a woman for no reason at all.”

“Well, maybe I haven’t grown that much.” Leo stopped at the side of the street, in front of the door of a large three story building. He turned to Danny. “Wait here, I have to go up, and sort out some stuff.” He handed Danny the gun. “Hold this for a moment.”

Danny watched Leo disappear into the narrow doorway. He felt the gun’s weight in his hands. He could run in there after Leo, shoot him in the back of the head. But that hadn’t worked before, or even the time before that. Leo was completely aware how much leverage he held over him. Danny couldn’t afford to second guess whether he was telling the truth or not. Not if there was any chance Leo really did have access too his family. He would just have to play along for now, find out as much as he could. Danny looked down at the gun, and then up and down the street.


	3. Chapter 3

This was the old town, a small pedestrianised area with cobbled streets. Century old buildings stood between newer offices and clubs. Danny had come here a few times, with Abbie or work colleagues, when he was new to the city. It was a tourist trap, full of over-priced bars. And busy this time of night. Danny couldn’t hear anything over the music blaring from all directions and the chatter of people passing him. He watched the crowds stream past, unsure of what to do. He could disappear into the sea of people and miss out on whatever Leo had planned. But if he lost Leo now he would never be able to go back to living like this was normal.

As he hesitated he saw two men emerge from around the corner of a building ahead. One pointed at him and said something to the other. They wore red hoodies pulled up with a baseball cap underneath. One had completed the look with a baseball bat. They headed his way.

Danny turned and ran. Weaving through the crowd, he glanced back and saw the men following. He pushed his way through the shoals of people, ducking low as he crossed the road, and slipped into an arched doorway on the other side of the street. He kept close to the wall, in the half-shadows just clear of where the club’s red neon splattered onto the sidewalk. A group of people stood outside this bar, watching a woman strip in the window. Maybe that would distract his pursuers. If not, he had a gun, they didn’t, that would even things out. Danny watched the street. A movement caught his attention, above the doorway he had waited outside. He could see a figure up there on the balcony. “Bastard,” he muttered under his breath. He was not going to be pushed into doing what Leo wanted. If Leo was trying to put him in a corner, force him to fight, then he would find a way around it.

Danny broke cover, running down the middle of the street. It was almost impossible to move, everyone seemed to be coming towards him, blocking him. He heard shouting behind him. He had to get off this road. An alleyway to the side jumped out at him and he pushed his way towards it. Reaching the alley’s mouth he finally had clear ground and broke into a sprint. He ran along the twisting, turning back-roads, not seeing the backs of the buildings he passed, just the ground in front of him. He could hear footsteps behind him, but they were growing faint, he was losing them.

Then he stumbled over a step down and the whole world lurched before he righted himself and staggered into the shadows, leaning against the wall for support. The blood was pounding, rushing in his head, his hands felt numb, his legs unsteady. For a minute he felt like he was going to blackout completely, just like the old days. He was tired, he hadn’t eaten in days; Leo always picked the worst times.

Footsteps nearby. He froze, half bent over between two dumpsters, hoping he was far enough into the shadows. He could feel the guy looking at him, could sense him there, though he was silent. Danny heard a movement, looked up to see the man moving off and let a relieved breath slip out. The man stopped for a split second and then whirled round, lifting his bat and slamming it down into the darkness, onto Danny’s shoulder. Danny fell to the floor as he felt the jagged edges gouge flesh from his arm. He crumpled to the floor. He lifted the gun as he fell and fired twice into the face of his attacker. The man reeled back against the bins, landing in a heap between them. Danny sat up quickly, under the ringing echo of the gunshot he could hear footsteps. The other man appeared behind the first fallen gang-member. Danny raised his gun. The man looked at him, then turned and ran.

Danny sat still on the floor for a moment. Then he got up and kicked the dead guy onto his back. His face was gone, his nose and jaw a mix of mush and hanging teeth. Danny could see breath shuddering out with the blood, but they were irregular and died to nothing as he watched. He picked up the baseball bat, he wasn’t sure why. It had jagged edges, metal blades sliced into it. It set off a memory that he pushed away. He didn’t want to remember. Not right now. He wanted to forget everything.  

* * *

 

People were quick to get out of Danny’s way as he walked back to the apartment. He didn’t know if it was the gun, the bat or the gaping wound in his shoulder. He stood outside the doorway Leo had disappeared into and rang the bell. Every so often he would feel the blood collecting in his shoulder blade overflow and slip down his back. It stung like hell. He was leaving a puddle outside the building, and it wouldn’t be hard for the police to find him, if they cared. Leo opened the door.

“You’re a cunt.”

“You got them?” Leo looked at him like he already knew the answer, like he was proud.

“Yeah.” He decided not to tell Leo about the second man. Maybe he would come back later and kill Leo for sending him unarmed against someone with a gun. It was worth a chance.

“Come upstairs and we’ll get you patched up.”

Danny followed Leo inside. Leo indicated that Danny should leave the bat by the door, so he did, but kept the gun. Danny followed Leo up three flights of communal stairwell, until they arrived at the top apartment. Leo unlocked the door and stepped aside to allow Danny in first. There were two men in suits sitting on the couch.

“Watchdogs?” Danny asked Leo. They didn’t seem about to attack, though the way they looked at Danny was as hostile as they ever had.

“Don’t worry. This is Mike and Tom. We’re working together. They won’t hurt you. Not while I’m here.”

It was strange seeing them without their masks, like they had been revealed as real people. One had grey hair, balding. The other was younger, with a surly expression on his face. The men didn’t make any introduction and Danny figured they probably knew exactly who he was. The first Watchdog got up and left the room. The second kept his stare locked on Danny as he followed. Danny watched them leave. He looked around the apartment. It looked like a real home, lived-in navy blue couch and carpets, dishes in the sink. Everything was starting to feel very surreal to Danny. “You’re working with Watchdogs?” he asked Leo. “But you killed dozens.”

Leo reached out for Danny’s hand and gently took the gun. “They never saw my face,” he said quietly.

Danny supposed he was in shock, because he stood still as Leo took off his shirt and bandaged his wound. Watched Leo’s fingers move against his skin, wiping away the red and covering the broken flesh with a clean white dressing. He watched the concentration on Leo’s face, now calm and still, no trace of blood hunger there, almost like a normal person. Afterwards he let himself be led to and sat down on the couch. It was only when the doorbell rang that he felt some reality drip back into the room. Leo came back from the door with a bag of takeaway food. He set a burger and soda down on the table in front of Danny and took a seat himself.

“Eat. You’re going to need your strength.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean? And what was that downstairs? If you want to kill me just do it. It would be better than being stuck here with a murdering piece of shit like you.” Danny took a bite of the burger. Maybe he should refuse it, but he was too hungry to care.

“You were acting like a pussy. I needed to show you that you still have it in you to be a killer. And I was right. You did fine.”

Danny laughed. “I don’t know what you want from me. But you’re not going to get it. You’re pathetic Leo. I didn’t kill those people, you did. Forcing me into situations where I have to kill isn’t going to make me…” Danny trailed off, all of a sudden he had completely lost his train of thought. He leaned back, he couldn’t stay upright, he was so tired.

“Make you want to kill?” Leo offered, leaning in towards him.

“…more like you. It’s not…”  The last thing Danny felt was a sharp pain as his shoulder hit the back of the couch.


	4. Chapter 4

Darkness. Silence. Something moved in front of his face, brushing against it lightly. Danny turned his head to the side. It didn’t go away so he stopped moving. He flowed between sleep and wakefulness. And sleep felt a hell of a lot better. Every time he approached consciousness a pain behind his eyes started to rev up. It was easier to let go and slip into the blank comfort of sleep. But his survival instinct was kicking in, and he knew he was going to have to wake up. The ground beneath him was cold and hard, seeping into his back, scraping against his bones. His head ached like a bruise, soft and juicy. He curled in on himself. There was cloth in front of his face, all around his body, enclosing him. Where was he? Had he been talking to Leo? Was that real? He had to get up, he didn’t know where he was, it wasn’t safe. Just as he was about to move, he heard a sound in the distance.

Footsteps. Danny opened his eyes to see, nothing, darkness. He hadn’t even realised he had them closed. The footsteps seemed to echo, he could hear them through the ground. He lay frozen. The icy floor kept sending shooting chills through his back. He could make out voices now, just. Concentrating through the pain in his head. “... his face... not wise... did you see?”

It all sounded unclear and fuzzy, fading in and out. But the sounds were coming closer. Instinct screamed at him to run. But he knew it was too late. If he moved now, he was disorientated; he didn’t know where he was. His only chance was to stay still and hope they missed him.

The footsteps stopped, right next to Danny. “Still there. What now?”  This voice sounded harsher and louder than the one he had heard before. So there were at least two people.

“We wait. However long it takes,” the first, softer voiced man, replied.

There was silence for a moment. They were still standing right by him. Danny could hear their breathing. Could hear his own breathing too.

A shuffling of feet. “But…” Slowly, waiting. “Who would know?” It sounded casual, but there was a challenge in there.

“He would know. He'd soon find out.” The first voice was impatient.

“It would be so easy. Just cut him up!” Danny heard movement, sudden and swift. He tensed.

“No! We do as we were told.” The first guy hissed. It sounded like they had moved further away from him.

“Alright, he’s fucking paying anyway,” the second man said. Danny could hear the shrug in his voice. And the undercurrent of fear too. “Don’t know why it has to be so...”

“Elaborate?”

“Right, whatever.”

“Let’s get out of here.”

They were leaving. He wasn’t dead yet. Danny felt the rush of adrenalin stabilise and he relaxed a fraction. He was wide awake now. The footsteps steadily retreated the way they came. Danny let his breath escape, one half-controlled breath out.  He heard voices growing distant. “Waste of fucking time... I could ... not tonight...

Danny waited till he could only hear silence. The dark in front of his face was collapsing in on him, shapes and colours appearing. He moved suddenly and then he couldn’t stop, struggling up, his breathing quick and harsh. Pushing at the fabric surrounding him. He sat up and grabbed and pulled it off his face.

The long corridor he sat in faded into darkness as he looked down it. Stone floor, cold white walls. Barred cells along one side. A dim light coming from the cell to his right. Anxiously he peered behind him, to see steel bars.

Danny stood up slowly. The dark coarse cloth which had hidden him fell to the floor. He looked down at himself and saw no obvious injuries, just felt the stinging in his shoulder.

He looked at the cell next to him, staring at it as though something was going to leap out from it and bite him. Deep down he had known the minute he woke up. There was no other place on earth like this. He felt sick, panic rising up from his stomach. He leaned over and waited, kept it at bay. Straightened up to see nothing changed. He had spent six years here, in this cell. Now he was back. Tentatively he gave one last look down the corridor and he stepped forward into the doorway. The steel barred doors were open for him, so he walked inside.

The light in the corner seemed to flicker and grow. He felt dizzy and a black film came down in front of his eyes, blocking out all light. He was lying on the bed in the corner off the cell, his eyes nearly closed. A bright white light above him and Dr Whyte, Laura, stood next to him. He saw the needle in his arm and reached out. He sat up, grabbing her throat, choking her as they fell to the ground.

Danny looked up. He was back again. The light in the corner was barely brighter than a candle. Something caught his eye, a shape on the bed. He moved closer and saw a full body bag laid out on the mattress. He glanced out into the corridor, back at the corner he had been lying in. It was completely black, bathed in shadows, impossible to see anything in there, especially with this cell all lit up next door.

Danny walked over to the bed. Hand shaking, he reached out and pulled the zip down on the body bag. There was a man inside with his face torn off. Carefully, he pulled the zip down further. The corpse was wearing a black suit and had a flick knife resting on his stomach.

He picked up the knife and stood looking at it for a moment before flipping it open. The blade flashed grey in the dull light. He knew exactly what he was supposed to do. He wasn’t going to do it. He didn’t remember all of what happened after the escape. But he knew he was more than capable of killing when pushed into a corner. He had killed, over and over again. He didn’t remember the specifics anymore. They had all blended into one long nightmare of blood, force splitting flesh and... No, he wasn’t going to do that.

He walked quickly out of the cell. Glad to be out of there. Brought back too many bad memories. He only remembered a few things from his time here, and that was still too many. Watching the darkness at the end of the corridor he slowly began to move forwards, keeping close to the wall. He checked the cells as he passed. Each one was empty. He had to get out of here. He didn’t know what he was going to do then. But right now getting out was all that mattered. At the end of the corridor he checked around the corner, nothing ahead. It was all quiet. He sped up, passing more cells. There was a faint light up ahead, coming around the next curve in the tunnel-like corridor.

There was a cry up ahead. Danny jumped and planted his back to the wall, grasping the knife in front of him. He stood still, listening. Everything was silent again. He was still for a few minutes, psyching himself up. What had Leo always said to him when he waited too long? But that was the wrong thing to be thinking about now. He pushed forward and edged along the wall, towards the corner. Coming to the end he looked around.

The corridor looked just like the others in the basement. Stone floors, steel barred cells on one side. The central cell had a light on, illuminating the middle of the hallway. Beyond that Danny saw the electronic door which led up to the first floor. It was open and there was a dark shape on the floor in front of it.

For a split second he saw this corridor, bloodstains on the walls, broken glass and syringes covering the floor, a dead body against the wall. A guard stood in front of him, talking into the intercom. He was gripping the syringe in his hand so hard it hurt. He heard Leo’s voice… Then he was back. He had killed that guard. He had killed so many… It hit him as he stood there. All the violence, pain he remembered. He had killed over and over again. All because Leo had told him too. He had trusted him.

Danny set off down the corridor, staring around him, staying crouched and close to the wall. He needed to get out of here. Get away from Leo. Maybe then he could just forget all this. Go back to being David Joiner, or anyone besides himself. But not if his family were in danger. Of course it could all be a lie. They could be dead already for all he knew. It crossed his mind that between him and Leo that might be the best thing for them. But he couldn’t think like that. He crouch-sprinted across the lit area, heart thumping. He got to the end and bent down to look at the body. It was a Watchdog, wearing the same dark suit as the man in the bag and those he had seen with Leo. Wounds in his neck and stomach. Danny stepped over him and through the doorway into the stairwell. Keep going. Figure out what he was going to do as he went.

Cautiously he climbed the stairs. There was a light on in the room at the top, a proper bulb. And in the next hallway too, which Danny carefully moved into. This corridor had doors on sides, showers and holding cells, for scrubbing down the inmates. Danny couldn’t remember ever having been in there, but... it was probably a good thing he didn’t remember. He didn’t want that flashback. He moved quickly towards the open doorway ahead. As he did he saw an orderly walk across the gap.

Danny dived into a nearby alcove. He stood still in the shadows, waiting. He heard footsteps coming closer. Then there was a sound from further away, of grinding metal. The footsteps nearby stopped and Danny heard more heading his way.

“Hey!” the orderly called out. Danny moved as close to the edge of the alcove as he could, crouching down in the darkness. He could see the orderly, looking back. Could see the scalpel he held in his hand, close to his side.

Two Watchdogs walked through the doorway. Danny ducked back into the small space.

“Hey.” Danny heard one of the watchdogs greet the orderly. The Watchdog paused. “Where's Rick?”

“Uh... He had a run-in with Lamb. He's down there somewhere. Weren't you guys with Frank?” The orderly sounded awkward, outnumbered.

“We split up. Where’s Lamb?” A different voice, the other Watchdog.

“Still downstairs probably. I was just going to go look for him.”

A pause. “Stay here, we’ll take care of it.”

Danny stood still as the two Watchdogs passed his hiding place. He recognised the younger, blonde one, even masked, from back at the apartment. He didn’t recognise the other, but he caught the determined look in his eyes. This was a guy who was really looking forward to killing someone, probably him. They walked past and he saw the older Watchdog turn to the other. “Ridiculous, having us work with these jokers, after what he did to one of our own.” The younger dog made a noise of agreement and shrugged, bouncing the bat on his shoulder. They walked through the hallway, towards the stairs, not looking back. Danny heard the orderly behind him mumble something. Danny listened for movement and heard nothing. The orderly was waiting. He wanted to be sure they had gone. Maybe he would follow them downstairs. Then he could get past all of them, to the control room.

He waited. He had to be patient, take it slow. No point running out there and getting killed. Danny glanced around the alcove. Lucky this was here. There were lots of these little niches in the asylum, he remembered. Like this place was designed for hiding. Maybe it was. He didn’t really believe what Leo had said, did he? Leo would manipulate him, lie to him to mess up his head, he had done it before. Still, it was very convenient.

The orderly in the hallway turned and walked away towards the control room. Danny stepped forward. His foot made contact with something and a can went spinning out across the corridor, smacking into the opposite wall.

The orderly turned and looked straight at him.

Danny stumbled back into the darkness, knife held out in front of him. The orderly rushed towards him, slashing at him with the scalpel. Danny dodged and jumped back, slid along the back wall and ran forward, ducking down behind the orderly. He felt the blade slice across his back. He sprinted down the corridor, through the doorway and into the next room. The orderly was close behind him. Danny wrenched the door to the control room open and leapt inside, shutting the door in the orderly’s face and locking it. The orderly shouted, pulling at the door. Danny stepped back and looked round at each glass wall. The orderly wasn’t going anywhere, and now neither was he. He was trapped, and the Watchdogs could come back at any minute. He ran over to the control panel. Randomly he pressed buttons. They didn’t do anything, the power had been shut off. The door in front of the panel, the only way out of the main room, besides the way he came in, was open. But he was in here now. Why the hell did he run in here? If he had gone through that door he would have had a chance. Now he was screwed, they were going to get in sooner or later, and he had nowhere to run to. Danny grabbed a ball-point pen from the edge of the panel. He turned to the orderly, holding the knife in one hand and the pen in the other. His only chance was to take this guy out before the watchdogs came back. The orderly looked tough, but he had taken down bigger men.

The orderly turned and glanced behind him. Danny saw two figures at the far end of the corridor. “Hey! Come and help me here!”

Danny ducked down, sliding under the wooden desk which stood against the wall, next to the door. He got as far under as he could, facing the main space of the room he grasped the knife in front of him. He could hear footsteps, running. He was going to die. Fuck you Leo. He felt a kind of satisfaction. Leo had wanted to make him kill. Well it was fucking unlikely he’d be killing anyone today

“He's dead!” One of the Watchdogs shouted.

“I told you so. Now help me get this door open. He’s-"

The other Watchdog interrupted. “Danny's still in bed, and he's going to be staying there. How do you explain that?”

“What happened? Rick tried to stop you?” The anger in the younger Watchdog‘s voice was more obvious, but each of them was starting a conversation that could only end one way.

“Lamb's in there you morons!” The orderly laughed, disbelieving, panicking.

Danny heard the sound of metal striking something full and heavy. He heard something hit the floor and then the first sound again and again. Eventually there was silence and he had to strain to hear panting.

“What do we do with the body?”

“We leave it.” The older watchdog sighed, and Danny heard footsteps moving away. The bat dragged over the floor. “It's over.” His voice grew further away “Too bad. I was looking forward to tearing him apart. Damn pups.”

Danny glanced out from under the control panel in time to see the two Watchdogs leave the room. Crouched down he moved to the door, hesitating he opened it slowly. The orderly lay on his side, facing away. Danny crept past him and paused by the doorway, looking into the corridor at the elevators. He could hear the Watchdogs talking, further down the corridor. His eyes were drawn to the elevators and he wondered if they still worked. Danny had vague memories of going in and out of these lifts, week after week. He remembered sitting in his cell, trying to get grasp how long he had been there, the answers slipping away before he could catch them. He had spent six years here. Had he? It felt like forever, and no time at all. Like time had stopped while he was here. He had never expected to leave. As bad as this was, at least he wasn’t back there.

Without expecting much he crept over to the elevator and pressed the button. To his surprise it groaned into life and the doors creaked open. Danny heard voices behind him. He leapt inside and pressed the up button frantically. The door closed and the lift ascended as the Watchdogs appeared below for a second and then disappeared. Danny moved backwards, leaning against the wall. He looked over his shoulder and felt his back, pulling on his shirt to see, there was a blood patch, but it wasn’t dripping, the wound didn’t feel deep. He would be lucky if he got out of here with just that. Danny saw something out of the corner of his eye. A security camera on the roof. A small one, hardly noticeable. Leo. Of course he wanted to watch. He bet there were cameras hidden all over the building. He turned away and watched out the front of the elevator. Each floor he passed was silent and empty. He thought back to the last time he was in here, passing by floors filled with people fighting and dying. The lift came to a stop sooner than Danny expected. He stepped out. He heard raised voices to his right. A Watchdog and an orderly arguing. The Watchdog looked up and noticed him. “Dr Lamb!”

Danny set off running as the orderly stabbed the distracted Watchdog. He ran around the corner and into the long corridor and skidded on the polished floor, looking from the door on one side and the little alcove to the other. He picked the alcove. The orderly arrived a second later, started to run down the corner, then looked back at the door. He ran back to it and flung the door open. “Oh, Danny!” he called out in a sing-song voice, then, “Oh, hey.” His tone changed abruptly.

Danny heard someone inside the room say something, he couldn’t hear what. The orderly went inside, pulling but not closing the door behind him. Danny edged closer to the mouth of the alleyway, looking down the long corridor.

“You seen Lamb? I’m sure I saw him heading this way,” the orderly asked.

Wait, wait, keep calm. He had to move… but not till he knew it was safe. He didn’t hear the other person answer.

“Well, you can’t hang around in here-”

Danny stepped out into the corridor. Crouched low he crept quickly away from the door.

“-letting those dogs have all the fun. Did you know one of them tried to kill me? I got him though…”

Danny moved further down the passage, and turned the corner finally. He stood up and ran. Sprinting through every identical tunnel, swinging round the corridors through each unbarred doorway. There were no thoughts now, just panic, run, and running took over.

He stopped when ran into a split level room. The room was wide open, with stone stairs going down to the lower level. Between the stairs and him there were four open cells. He moved forward cautiously. He tensed at every doorway, looking in, expecting to see- he didn’t know what. They were empty. This whole place was empty. Where had all the inmates gone? This place had been a mess when he left, dirty, half-destroyed. Now it was clean and repaired.

He walked down the stairs, to the ground level. Had Leo done all this? For him? Why? So far it wasn’t much of a revenge. There were four cells on this floor as well. Three open and the last one closed. Danny stared past them to the barred door at the far end of the room. There were four lights above it and Danny remembered why immediately. The project’s standard security system. It wouldn’t open until each holding cell was secure. He walked to the end cell, and along the row, closing them one by one. Nothing much inside. How was Leo in a position to arrange all this? The Watchdogs, the orderlies, the whole asylum closed off. Still, last time he saw Leo he was just a voice in his head, he had obviously come a long way since then. The lights flashed on as he shut the door of the third cell. The door out was open. Danny walked towards it, but he paused in front of the final closed cell. Why was it the only one closed? Just a coincidence? Danny hesitated. How did Leo’s mind work? He had spent a lot of time with him, he should know. Would he put something useful in there, knowing that he wouldn’t open it? Or something dangerous, knowing that he would have to now what was in there. It all came down to how well Leo knew _him_.

Danny started towards the way out. Then turned back to the cell. Making his decision he stepped forward and opened the heavy door. As it opened he jumped back. A bulky man in a white uniform came barrelling out of the doorway. He stopped, his eyes locked on Danny and he advanced as Danny stumbled back.

“He's our prey!”

Danny turned to see two Watchdogs standing at the top of the stairs. The same two from the basement level.

“Who the fuck are you?” the big orderly asked. He had stopped, surprised.

There was someone else on the stairs. One of the Watchdogs fell, slumping forward. A blur in white shot behind him, leaping at the other dog, blood streaming from his hand. The big orderly pushed past Danny, shoving him out of the way and across half the room, and ran towards the staircase.

Danny scrambled to his feet, took one look back at the fight and jumped forward, slamming his hand down on the button to close the last cell. The end gate beeped and began to inch open. He squeezed through the gap, tore across the next room, through double doors, to collide with someone. Danny jumped back and the knife slipped out of his grip, sliding across the floor. The orderly he had ran into froze. He stared at Danny, eyes wide, but didn’t move. Danny looked back at him, and raised the ballpoint pen in his left hand. “Do you know how many men I've had to kill to get here?”

The orderly said nothing. He glanced behind him nervously.

“I’m going to give you one chance. Where is Leo?”

“He's just up there,” he pointed behind him. “Up the stairs. I was supposed to take you to him anyway, if you got this far. I guess it won’t matter…”

Danny pushed past. He walked swiftly up the stairs and into the staff locker-room. He stopped in front of the door to the rec room. So this was where Leo was. He opened the door slowly, looking inside. The room appeared empty; the only movement was on the screens of several TVs stacked against the far wall. Danny stepped inside. He looked around the room at the plastic chairs and tables. He had only been in here once, when he escaped from the asylum. Danny’s eyes were drawn to the window nearest to him. He could see the sunlight streaming through and onto the bare floor, broken by the shape of the wire inside the glass. Of course there wouldn’t be an easy way out this time. He moved closer to the monitors, stacked unsteadily on top of each other. They played silent scenes from the asylum. Danny saw a wide-shot of the huge orderly lying still on the ground while the two watchdogs stood above him. Looked like they had won this round. Danny heard a noise behind him and spun round.

There were several cells with long clear windows along one side of the room. A low moaning came from the nearest cell. Danny saw Leo inside, standing with his back to him, looking at something on the floor. He didn’t seem to have noticed him. The noise grew higher in pitch as Danny stood there and then abruptly broke off.

Danny walked over and quietly pushed open the unlocked door. He immediately saw what Leo was looking down at, what he was pointing a gun at. There was a man lying on the floor. He looked exactly like Leo, except older and with a more empty expression on his face. He was bleeding from his mouth and had obviously been beaten badly. Beneath the smeared blood Danny could see hundreds of raised older scars, centred on his forehead and radiating out over the man’s face. His mouth moved, but he wasn’t saying words, only babbling sounds. His eyes had flickered to Danny as he came in, but had quickly moved away to drift aimlessly around the small room. Danny looked at the Leo with the gun, the one he recognised as the real Leo. He didn’t look up at Danny once, just stood staring down at his doppelganger. Danny was confused for a moment. Then realisation struck. This was Leo’s original body. He supposed it would have made more sense when Leo was a chip in his brain as opposed to actually standing there.

Leo didn’t seem about to move. He stood eyes fixed, jaw set, gun cocked and aimed, focused on the man on the floor. Danny had never seen Leo look vulnerable before. Even in the worst situations he had been cold, emotionless. Besides the occasional flare-ups of rage towards the project, he was always so calm, determined. He still looked like that now, but for the first time Danny was sure that there was something going on beneath the surface. The whole thing made Danny uncomfortable. He was standing close to Leo now and he reached out and took the gun out from Leo’s hand. Leo didn’t look up or resist, just let the gun slip from his grip as though his hand had moulded to the pistol’s shape without him realising it. Danny aimed and fired and the man on the ground stopped moving, his head blown apart, his face unrecognisable.

Leo finally looked up. Danny handed him back the gun. He felt slightly guilty, though he wasn’t sure why. It was an act of kindness really, even if he had only done it to get Leo’s attention. Leo looked away, behind him, through the glass at the monitors. He still seemed distant, unfocused. Danny watched him, concerned for a moment, before he pulled himself up, he had no reason to feel sorry for Leo. Not after all he had done.

“You got here quick.” Leo broke the silence, looked back to Danny, up and down. “You didn’t kill any, did you?” He sounded let down.

“No. And I’m not going to. I’m not going to kill for you,” Danny said, relieved to be back on firmer ground.

Leo looked down at the body. “Yeah?”

“Doesn’t count. You’re an exception.”

Leo slipped the gun into his belt and straightened up. “Well you acted like a pussy so far. I didn’t expect you to kill them all. But not even one?” Leo turned and walked out of the cell and over towards the TV monitors.

Danny followed him. He didn’t understand why he hadn’t killed Leo when he had the chance. Leo summed up this place. All the anger, violence and pain, rolled up in one person. Danny hated him. He had destroyed his life, in fact he was still destroying it now. So why hadn’t he killed him? Because it hadn’t felt right? Fuck that. Leo deserved to die.

“Why are you doing this?” Danny asked.

Leo looked him in the eye and said sincerely, but with an undertone of irritation. “I'm trying to help you Danny.”

“What?” Leo didn’t answer, turning back to the monitors. Danny hated the way Leo turned his back on him, like he wasn’t a threat. Bad idea to do that to someone you had almost killed, who had almost killed you. “No, I don’t believe that, this is just some sick game you‘re playing.”

Leo didn’t look round. “Right, _my_ sick game.”

“No-ones forcing you to do this. Don‘t pretend you don’t enjoy it.”

“Like I said, _you_ made me what I am. _You_ made me like this.”

“No. I didn’t.” Danny said, taking a step forward.

Leo gave him a look, which clearly said he thought Danny was fooling himself. “This is how you created me. I'd like to think about puppy dogs and football. But I can’t. All I think about is-”

Danny interrupted Leo. “Fine. Whatever you want. I’m sorry. If this is all some scheme to get back at me, Im sorry. I never meant to 'create' you. I wish I could take it all back. If this is all so hard for you, if you hate it so much, why don’t you just end it? Kill yourself?”

Leo looked at him, thoughtful. For a second Danny thought something he said had hit home. Then Leo grinned at him. “Alright, you got me. Hell, I don’t hate it. I love it. I admit it. And I know deep down, you do too.”

“No I don’t. You killed my wife. You destroyed my life. You made me kill over and over. And I am never going to kill for you,” Danny said slowly. They were standing close, eye to eye, inches apart. The current of anger which had been building in Danny through the conversation was threatening to ignite. But he fought to keep calm. Leo wanted to get to him. He wasn’t going to give Leo the satisfaction of seeing him lose what little control he had right now. “Now kill you, yeah I might do that.”

As Danny spoke the door behind them opened. Danny glanced back to see a group of Watchdogs. Leo put up a hand to keep them back and they stopped in the doorway. He stepped even closer to Danny and said quietly. “You want to know why I’m doing this? You keep trying to fool yourself that you’re better than this. You need to stop pretending this isn’t what you want. Why create a world like this, someone like me, if you didn’t want all this? The truth is you’re just like me.”

Danny stepped back, away from Leo, not in retreat, but deliberately putting space between the two of them. “Why can’t you just leave me alone?” He heard the Watchdogs move in the doorway behind him but didn’t break eye contact.

Leo had that look on his face again. The one Danny couldn’t read.  He looked away first. “Cuff him and take him to the car,” he told the Watchdogs.

Danny stood still and allowed one of the Watchdogs to handcuff his hands behind his back. As Danny turned Leo put a hand on his shoulder. He stepped closer. “Whatever you think, I am trying to help you. You need to be able to defend yourself if you're going to survive here.” He whispered the words to Danny as though it was a secret they shared, something the Watchdogs shouldn’t hear.

Danny stared straight ahead. Leo mock sighed. “If you're going to be this stubborn, I’m just going to have to up the stakes next time. Go on. Take him to the car,” he added to the watchdog, who pushed Danny towards the door.


	5. Chapter Five

Danny sat alone at the bar. He was surrounded by people in suits and evening dresses, talking and laughing. There was a bubble around him, separating him. They hadn’t noticed yet, but they would.  He pushed his glass away across the mahogany surface of the bar-top. He didn’t feel like drinking tonight; he had no reason to celebrate. He had finally admitted to himself what he had known for weeks, that he couldn’t keep doing this. He was losing himself, losing the person he wanted to be. His family was falling apart. He didn’t believe in the project anymore, didn’t believe it was for the greater good, or in the pay check, or why-ever it was that everyone else in this room was able to ignore the horrors they inflicted.

Finally admitting it had been amazing, just for a moment. A relief not to lie to himself anymore. He couldn’t change the past, but at least he could stop now, right? Of course he couldn’t. He couldn’t just quit. What would happen to him, to his family then? He couldn’t blow the whistle, who was he going to tell? The government ran this program, it went all the way to the top. All he could do was his job, and right now that was to come out here, and mingle. He sat and stared at the empty bar-top.

There was a movement next to him. Whoever was on the next stool shifted their weight. Danny moved as far away as he could while keeping his seat. He looked dead ahead, he didn’t want to talk, not to anyone he knew, and certainly not to anyone from management. But he didn’t want to leave the bar, that would mean having to socialize. The man next to him moved again, shifting even closer. Danny was starting to think it was deliberate, that this guy was trying to piss him off, and it was working. Danny glanced across. The man was sat turned away from the bar, leaning forward, watching the crowd Danny had been trying to ignore. Dark hair, muscular, no suit, just shirt and brown combat style trousers. Not someone Danny had seen here before. The way he was staring at the crowd was strangely intense, but Danny had a feeling that wasn’t what he was really interested in. Without looking at him the guy said something and Danny jerked his head up towards him, hardly able to believe what he had heard. The new man looked at him, casually. Danny caught his eye and knew he had heard right. Danny felt the shock again, now as he watched, as clear and with as much force as he had then. This guy had seen through the Project’s façade, just like him. He knew what was really going on here, and he wasn’t afraid to say it. He must have wondered back then, even briefly, why this guy had risked talking to him, how he knew he felt the same way? Maybe if he had spent a little longer thinking about that he wouldn’t be in this situation now. Or was it already too late?

Danny woke, jolting forward in the seat. He looked around the car, closing his eyes as a bright shaft of light shone momentarily through the window next to him, then the speeding car passed it by. He pushed himself up on the seat, there was a cold patch on his left temple, where he must have been leaning his head against the window. He was unsure what he was waking from, a dream or a memory. The suited man driving looked back at him in the rear-view mirror, his expression critical. Danny glanced at the Watchdog next to him, who looked back from beneath his mask, eyes impassive. He recognised him, the young dog from the apartment and the asylum basement, and looked away quickly. The driver turned his eyes back to the road. They moved through the city at a steady pace.

Danny sighed and sat back. Still here. He flexed his arms in front of him. His hands were cuffed and his shoulders ached. How long had he slept for? There were people packed onto the streets they passed, the sun was shining brightly. He estimated it must be about mid-day, early afternoon at most. But it had been light when he left the asylum and it felt like he had slept for a long time. He gazed out the window. A blur of buildings whizzed past over the heads of the people. What did it matter anyway?

He closed his eyes and drifted back into his past, going over what he could remember for the hundredth time. Waking up on that road, his burnt and destroyed house, the asylum, the safe house in the abandoned building. His mind jumped from place to place, leaving large gaps he couldn’t fill in. It felt like he was watching scenes from someone else’s life. Even when he went further back, to the birth of his kids, college, meeting Abigail, his childhood, things didn’t seem clear, real. Everything had changed too much, too quickly and he couldn’t keep a grip on them. Maybe he should let it go. What did it matter now? The past was dead and gone, along with any future he could have wanted. Only the present was real, closed up in a little box. There was no need to worry about the past or the future. He had destroyed them both.

He opened his eyes and watched the grey streets pass by. It wasn’t as though people were being murdered on every street corner. On the surface things looked normal. But there was nothing good on these streets. There was no happiness or hope in the faces that passed. Just acceptance of misery. A blankness that would only ever be interrupted by an occasional explosion of rage and hate. This wasn’t the world he had grown up in. He had been happy before, even when things were at their worst, when Abbie got pregnant when they were still in college, when Josh had got sick, things had turned out ok in the end. People had rallied round to help. He had worked harder and he had succeeded. He had always believed there was nothing he couldn’t deal with.

He tried to think back to the last thing he could remember before the operation. Abbie had arranged a meal out for him, early in the afternoon, before he had to start fasting. She invited Michael and Laura, even Pickman. Not Judy, she didn’t like Judy. He couldn’t remember why. But he appreciated it, even more since they had hardly spoken for the days leading up to the operation. She hated everything about the experiment. He thought it would erase all their money problems, launch his career, guarantee him a place in the history books. She thought it was too big a risk. Guess she was right after all. They had always had to struggle, their relationship had been always hard. It seemed like everything that could go wrong went wrong. But they were a team, Abbie was the one person he could talk to about anything. He had thought they would always be together. It scared him now how easily he had forgotten her and the kids, and how quickly he had accepted it when he found out she was dead. Like he was betraying her by letting go. Maybe he was. There were times, when things were at their worst, when he had longed for a single life, no responsibilities, to be able to concentrate fully on his work and do what he wanted when he wanted. Maybe this was his punishment.

Then after the operation everything changed. Abbie turned distant, cried at every little thing. Everyone changed. He remembered when he came round after the surgery, the first person he saw was Laura. And he knew right away that he wasn’t Danny to her anymore, just test case 412 566.

The world had changed since the experiment. What Leo said had to be true. The alternative was that this had always been the real world all along, he had just been too blind to see it. That life really was just a constant stream of shit. Danny watched the streets the car sped through, the homeless, the drug-dealers, the depressed city, and he started to smile. It wasn’t real. How could he ever have thought it was? This wasn’t his life. It was clear to him now. Yeah, he was crazy. He could deal with that, you could come back from crazy and wake up from comas. He hadn’t killed anyone, his family were still out there waiting for him. And he was ready to fight, to do anything to get back to them.

* * *

 

The car rolled to a stop in a deserted back-street. The engine cut out and Danny looked out the window at the graffitied stone walls and dustbins that filled the narrow alleyway. He didn’t worry about what was going to happen next, in fact he felt strangely content. A feeling of calm had come over him when he realised that someday, somehow, he was going to get out of here. Whatever it took, he would do it. Whatever was going to happen, he accepted it. It was just another barrier he had to overcome to get his life back.

The Watchdog in the front seat got out of the car, slamming the door behind him. He pulled out his phone and spoke into it, walking away. Danny watched, unable to hear as the driver disappeared out of view up the road. He glanced back at the Watchdog in the seat next to him, who stared intently back at him. Danny looked away, out the window. The sun was baking the tarmac, stubby little shadows jutted out from the wall. The dog in the front passenger seat reached over and turned the AC up. Danny moved his head closer to the window, tried to look up to catch a glimpse of the skyline. The car was parked too tight against wall. Still, he was sure he recognised this area, the shade of the bricks in the walls, the graffiti, it struck a familiar note with him. And he knew they were still in the city. He smiled, had they been driving round in circles for hours, waiting for him to wake up? No wonder the Watchdogs looked pissed off. The driver came walking back to the car with another Watchdog, who was carrying a cloth bag. He opened Danny’s door. “Get out. It’s time to go.” He grabbed Danny’s arm, pulled him out of the car and uncuffed him. Danny didn’t resist. He stood there waiting. He heard the other two Watchdogs get out of the car behind him.

The new Watchdog shoved the bag into Danny’s hands and stepped away quickly. In the bottom of the bag Danny saw a pair of pliers and something he could only describe as a small black plastic thing. He picked up the pliers first. Small but sharp. You could hold them covered in your hand and they wouldn’t be seen until it was too late. He took the other thing out and recognised it in the light. An earpiece. He set the bag down behind him on the seat of the car and fixed it in, looking at the Watchdogs, who didn’t seem to object. Moving the microphone to the front, nearer to his mouth, he pressed the button on the side and thought he heard a faint crackle. “We never used to need these to talk,” he said. Maybe that was an inappropriate thing to say to your worst enemy, but it didn’t seem to matter. It had been a long few weeks and he was in an odd mood.

There was a moment of silence before Leo’s voice came through, loud in his ear. “You getting nostalgic?” He sounded surprised, and maybe a little pleased. Danny was happy he could surprise him at least. Good. Put him off guard. Be co-operative now, then surprise him again later.

Danny looked at the Watchdogs standing in a circle around him. “So your plan to have the Watchdogs working with the Dixmor orderlies. That work out as planned?”

“It’s good to clean out the ranks now and again, keeps them from getting complacent. I did expect them to do better than that, you had an easy ride back there.” Leo’s voice was coming through clear now, no crackle.

“I've done it all before. So how did you convince the Watchdogs to work with you anyway? I thought they were with Pickman.”

“Now that's a story. I’ll tell you if you survive.”

“Thanks.”

“Ah, you'll be fine. You’re going in armed this time.”

Danny looked at the pliers.

“So what happens if I get wherever I’m going and just take this off?”

“Nothing. You just won’t have me to help you. And you might want my help. It’s not just your life on the line this time.”

“Great. What a-” Something cold landed in Danny’s heart. “Not my kids?”

“No... Nothing like that.” Leo sounded taken aback and Danny hoped he hadn’t given him any ideas. That would be going too far.

“Let’s get this over with,” Danny said quickly.

“You want anything first? Are you ready to go in?”

Leo actually sounded concerned about him, which made Danny smile. He was about to put him in a situation where he was likely to be brutally killed.

“Ready as I'll ever be.”

There was a crackle on new Watchdog’s walkie-talkie and Leo’s voice came over, telling them to move out. Danny picked up the brown bag with the pliers in and tied it around his waist.

They walked through the streets and onto a larger road with broken down cars parked along it. Most of the buildings here were boarded up but Danny recognised one that wasn’t, and the red sign above the door. A club, empty and silent in the daytime. He must have made some sound, some hint at recognition aloud. “You remember?” Leo asked in his ear.

“Yeah, I think so.”

“You start the same way as last time.”

For a moment Danny was confused, and then he looked over at the dumpsters at the side of the road. He dodged away from the dogs, climbing up onto bins and vaulting off them and over the wall. He hit the ground, jarring his knees. He heard noises behind him, sounds of pursuit which stopped as Leo shouted at them to stay put, audible though their headsets.

Danny took in the yard quickly. The high unassailable grey walls, the faded graffiti covering them, the weeds that had broken through the paving. There were gates in the corner, leading back onto the street. Too high to climb and he didn’t need to test them to know they were locked. He caught sight of one of the Watchdogs out on the road from between the bars. No going back, so he started forward towards the building. Halfway across the yard he saw someone looking out of the window ahead and skidded to a stop, frozen in the centre of the yard.

“Hey!” the face shouted, “Hey! Come over here!”

Danny stood in the middle of the yard uncertainly. He looked back, at the gate. He couldn’t see the Watchdogs there anymore, or hear them either. He reached into the bag and pulled out the pliers as he walked over to the window. As he approached he saw the face at the window belonged to a teenage girl. “I need you to call the police or something! I need some help,” she whispered urgently, getting quieter as he came closer.

“What-”

“We just came here for a job interview, I swear! Those fucks! Me and my sister Alice. God knows what they're doing to her. They took her and stuck me in here. Can you get me out of here? Please?”

“Lucky you have those pliers.” Leo’s voice came through clearly. Danny instinctively glanced behind him, forgetting for a moment.

“Can you hurry up? Please?” The girl asked. She sounded calmer now, and impatient.

“Stand back.” The glass in the window had wire running through it, probably why the girl hadn’t tried to break it already, Danny figured. He smashed at the glass with the pliers, then wrapped the bag the pliers had come in around his hand and cut the wire around the edges, pulling it away from the frame. He hoped the music he could hear coming from deeper inside the building was loud enough to cover the sound. He pulled the sheet of wire and glass away from the window and dropped it onto the concrete beside him. The girl brushed the remnants of glass from the windowsill and pulled the sleeves of her top down over her hands. She grabbed hold of the windowsill. “Out the way.”

Danny didn’t move. “No, there's no way out from here, the gate’s too high. We have to go through the club.”

The girl stepped away from the window, considering him.

“Fine. Come in here then.”

Danny looked through the window into the toilets. He couldn’t see anyone except the girl. He hesitated.

“What, you're not going to help out?” Leo asked. “You better make your mind up quickly because you're on a timer for this one. And if it hits zero just think what could happen to her poor little sister.”

Danny held back from telling Leo where to go. He pulled himself through the window, wincing as the glass cut into his hands and then his legs as he squeezed through. He dropped to the ground and hastily looked round.

The single ceiling light blinked steadily, flashing over dirty walls and a floor strewn with needles and puddles of urine. Danny could see the rows of grimy sinks and urinals and he stepped quickly around the divider to see the toilet stall was clear too.

He remembered this place, in fact this was one of the first things he remembered, which had been disturbing at the time. Sat in David Joiner’s apartment with returning memories of his family, his pre-asylum life, and this clear memory of smashing in the skull of a masked man with a toilet seat. But it would come in useful now to know the club’s layout.

He took a deep breath and turned back and looked at the girl. She looked too young to be in the club, maybe eighteen at most, and that was pushing it, skinny with an undernourished look. She was wearing a long-sleeved net top and a short leather skirt. Her shoulder length jet black hair looked like a wig, asymmetrical, and she had on heavy make-up, her fake tan giving an orange tint to her dark skin. Her eyes didn’t rest on Danny for long, but constantly flashed around the room, critically, as though she was assessing what he had just seen. “So what do we do now?” she asked.

“What’s your name?”

“Miranda,” she said, without making eye contact.

“Miranda. I’m Danny.” He moved to take a step closer to her, then stopped and stepped back. Not sure what he wanted to do, reassure her he supposed, but her body language was telling him to keep away. “Are you alright? Have they hurt you?”

“No, not really.” She shrugged and looked behind her. When she turned back he saw there was blood on her lip, but a thin line, no bruising, it looked like she had bitten it rather than been hit.

“Where is your sister?” he asked gently. He didn’t know what was going on with this girl, whether it was drugs or some kind of reaction to whatever had happened to her, but she seemed to change quickly between being on edge and unaffected by what was going on. He needed to keep her calm.

“I don’t know.” She gestured to the door. “Out there somewhere.”

Danny walked over to the door. He listened. He moved the door handle down slightly. It clicked open. He looked back at Miranda.

She shrugged again. “They said they'd kill me if I went out there.”

Danny hesitated by the door, cracking it a tiny amount, trying to see out. He could see the flashing lights from the club reflecting onto the tiles ahead. But he would have to go out into the open to see the main club.

“There are two goons out there. One at the bar. One by the stage. It’s safe to go now if you hurry,” Leo said in his ear.

“You're being very helpful,” Danny replied. He was curious as to why Leo would set this thing up and then guide him through it.

“Sorry,” Miranda said defensively.

“This is only the first challenge. I don’t want to lose you too soon. It’s going to get a lot more interesting.”

“As long as you're having a good time.”

“What? Are you talking to me?”

Danny glanced behind him. The girl was looking at him like he was crazy, which he supposed he was, to be fair, though this wasn’t evidence of it. He didn’t want to tell her he was chatting to the guy who set this whole scenario up, it sounded a little too creepy.  “Err...no... I just have some issues,” he said, searching for a reasonable explanation and coming up with nothing.

“Oh. Yeah.” She looked doubtful, then seemed to accept it. “Well, who doesn’t?”

Danny decided to change the subject. “I’m going to do my best to get you and your sister out of here Miranda. For the next few minutes I need you to do exactly what I say when I say, ok?”

“Fine.” Her tone was slightly bored, but Danny shrugged it off. People reacted strangely in these kinds of situations.

“Follow me.” Danny edged the door open and moved out, Miranda followed. They crouched in the shadows by the door. The bright light flashing from the dance floor was blinding for a second after the dark of the toilets. Danny led the way, crouched forward, to the windows which showed the dance floor.

“Fuckers!” Miranda hissed behind him. Danny looked back. Her face seemed to have come alive for the first time since he saw her.

A girl danced on the stage. She actually looked older than the first girl, very tall with long blonde hair. Her underwear looked too casual for the club. Her dancing was terrible, mainly consisting of her lurching from side to side. It was neither in time nor fitting to the pounding dance track. There was one man sitting by the stage, watching. The barman was crouched behind the bar, checking bottles of liquor. Danny touched Miranda on the arm and gestured to the door to the storeroom to their right. She followed him inside.

“They didn’t... what are they making her do out there? You think they're getting off on that?” she asked, staring out the door as he closed it.

“I don’t know,” Danny said carefully. He took in the room, it was filled with cardboard boxes, he pulled up the lid of the nearest one and found it was full of individually separated bottles of beer. Other boxes were stacked along the wall, on top of each other. He stepped forward and looked down into the lower section of the storeroom. “The barman's refilling the bottles. He has to come in here sooner or later.”

Leo broke in. “You can’t afford to wait-”

“Shut-up.” He needed to concentrate right now, figure out a plan.

The door on the lower level of the store-room opened. Miranda froze in the middle of the room. Danny flattened his back to the wall, crouching in between two stacks of boxes as someone walked into the store-room. Danny heard heavy steps approach as Miranda just stood there, looking like a deer in the headlights.

“I told you to stay put.” Danny heard the man step up from the lower level. Miranda took a few steps back and the bartender he had seen earler moved into view. A large man, fat and tall; Danny knew he had no chance if he saw him.

As the bartender moved past Danny stepped out from between the boxes, wrapped his arm around the man’s neck from behind and pulled his head back. He stabbed him in both eyes with the pliers, quickly, one, two. The bartender cried out, raising his hands to his face. Danny rammed the metal into his neck, stifling his cries as his trachea ruptured and filled with blood, spurting up and out through his mouth. Danny pushed the pliers in further, pulling the man’s head up and back with a sudden jerk and a snap. He let go. The man collapsed onto the floor.

“Fuck! That was awesome.” Miranda ran towards him.

Danny stared down at the corpse. He felt elated, shocked. He had done this on his own, for the first time, it was just him, no Leo. He looked up at Miranda, the excitement on her face and felt a tiny hit of something, pride, pleasure, before the guilt set in. He had killed a man. Yeah, he had to do it, but still… He shook the guilt off. He had to focus on getting this girl and her sister out of here. That was what was important right now. “Help me hide the body.” Danny pulled one of the larger boxes away from the wall. He started emptying it out, taking out the bottles carefully and placing them down on the concrete floor. Next to him Miranda banged one down, it sounded loud enough to hear out by the bar. Danny looked at Miranda and he thought he caught a look flash across her face, maybe fear, or nerves. He smiled at her encouragingly. 

They finished clearing out the box and Danny moved over to the body. He took the arms and before he could ask Miranda was lifting the feet. Danny glanced down and saw the face, eyes missing, covered in a mask of blood. It would have bothered him once. Now the only thing that made him feel uneasy was that he had done it all by himself. There had been no Leo encouraging him, guiding his hand this time. Before he had always felt on autopilot during the killing, maybe that was when Leo was most in control. This time it had been all him.

They pushed and pressed the body into the box, eventually folding him in half to get him in. Danny closed the lid. He felt like he should fell be more shocked by all this. He didn’t want to get used to this, he needed to try and avoid it. That time it couldn’t be avoided, but… He didn’t want to enjoy killing. And he knew he could, now. Like Leo had said, what did it matter? If it wasn’t real? But he didn’t want that. It was playing into Leo’s hands. And that wasn’t the person he wanted to be. He was better than that.

“Hey! Still there?” Danny looked up to see Miranda watching him, arms crossed, waiting.

He shook himself and walked over to the lower door. “There’s still one out there. We have to get him in here.”

Miranda followed him. “I can do that. No problem.”

“Ok, you open the door. When he gets close you run towards the toilets. I‘ll do the rest.”

Miranda nodded and Danny backed away into the little alcove in the corner. Miranda kicked the door open.

“Hey scumbag! Come and get me baby!”

She stepped back behind the door and grabbed a wine bottle. Danny looked out, mouthed run to her, and the guard ran in. Miranda hit him over the head with the bottle, failing to break it.

The man stumbled back. “What the fuck?”

Danny ran toward the guard, who turned and saw him at the last minute. The man raised his hand to push the pliers away from his face, getting a sliced hand but knocking the pliers to the floor. Both men dived for the pliers and scrambled after them on the floor. Miranda threw a bottle at the attacker’s head and it hit, sending glass shards all over the floor and stunning him. Danny gave up on the pliers. He grabbed a bottle from the wine rack overhead, smashed it on the floor and shoved it behind him into the man’s face. Miranda broke another bottle over his head. Danny stood up and grabbed another bottle, throwing and smashing it onto his head, Miranda did the same. The man was still and Danny put his hand on Miranda’s arm, stopping her. They stood there for a moment, looking down at the guard with his ruined face, he was still breathing, but appeared to be unconscious. Danny walked away and picked up the pliers. When he looked back Miranda was heading out the door and over to the stage. Danny followed her into the main club. The girl onstage was still dancing.

“Alex, stop it!” Miranda raised her voice over the music. She jumped up onto the stage, grabbed the girl’s arm and pulled her to a stop.

The girl paused and seemed to notice Miranda for the first time. Danny stepped up onto the stage. Seeing her up close Danny realised she was actually younger than Miranda, maybe twelve, thirteen, just very tall and well developed. Her eyes looked strange and distant. She gave Miranda a hug, which the older girl broke quickly.

“For fuck’s sake, they're just kids,” Danny muttered.

“I’m not a kid.” Alex stared at him.

There was no reply from Leo. “I know you can hear me.”

“This is Danny. He's going to help us escape. Danny this is Alexandra.” Miranda announced her.

“Are you ok?” Danny turned to the girl.

She smiled. “Yep.”

“They didn’t do anything to you, did they?” Miranda asked.

The girl shook her head.

Danny walked across the stage to the door at the back. He pushed the door, it didn’t budge. “Ok, we need to get through here. We need to get this door open.” He got down off the stage, headed over to the bar. He thought back, remembering. “There are scales over here, they open it, and they need-”

“The barman,” Miranda offered.

Danny led the way over to the storeroom. Passing the guard, Miranda gave him a kick. Danny thought he saw him move slightly. The three of them picked up the box with the barman in and carried it through the storeroom and behind the bar, over to the door mechanism. When they set the box down on it the door at the back of the stage slid open immediately.

Miranda and Alex headed over. Danny hurried forward,  jogged ahead and put up a hand to stop them. He peered around the corner, into the corridor behind the stage. It looked empty. They crept up the passage, Danny in the lead until they came to the front desk of the club. He walked around the desk and started towards the far doors at the end of the corridor.

“This is the way out isn’t it?” Miranda called from behind him. She was standing next to the main door in front of the desk. She pushed the door open and looked out. “Yes, this is definitely it.”

Danny hurried over. Looking out he saw the street outside, empty.

“So we-” Alex started. She was still standing in the middle of the passageway, looking confused.

Danny interrupted her. “Look, I know there’s something going on here. But please don’t come back. You don’t know what you're getting into.”

Miranda didn’t look at him before she walked out of the door.

Alex smiled. “Ok, thank you,” she said politely. She ran out. Danny watched as she caught up with Miranda.

“That wasn’t so hard was it?”

“You’re sick. They’re just kids. They don’t understand.” Danny stood by the door looking out until the girls rounded the corner and were out of sight.

“Well you've helped them out then haven’t you? Not going to follow them?”

“You said there were more.”

“I knew it. You’re getting into this. I knew you would enjoy yourself once you got going.”

“I’m not enjoying it. I just know there's no point trying to leave.” Maybe he should go, this could be his only chance. But this was all leading somewhere, Leo had something planned and he had to admit he was curious. He knew he was going to regret staying, but what else was he going to do? Go out there into world he didn’t believe in anymore. What was the point? He closed the door and turned his back to it. Leaned back against the smooth wood and examined the faded posters behind the reception desk.

“Well you've done well so far. Whatever happened to 'I’m not going to kill'?”

“I only killed one guy. I had to.” Talking to Leo actually made him feel more sure of himself. It was always good to compare himself to Leo. Made him feel like a wonderful person.

“Two. And you were surprisingly brutal. I’m impressed.”

“The other one’s still alive.” Danny wasn’t so sure of that.

“He’ll be dead soon. Still if you really don’t like killing, you're going to love what I’ve got planned next.”

“What do you mean?”

“I thought I’d give you a taste of what it's like to be me.”

“A psychopathic-”

“-No, having to watch while the person in control of your life fucks it up and gets you both killed. Head towards the double doors.”

Danny walked toward the doors at the end of the corridor, looking around for a weapon as he did.

“I never got us killed.”

“Yeah, thanks to me.” Leo paused and Danny listened to him breathe out. “No, that’s not fair, you weren’t so bad. You could do some amazing things with a plastic bag.”

“I don’t remember that.”

“Yeah, well there's a lot you don’t remember. Now wait. Can you hear that?”

Danny paused outside the double doors. He heard the loud thud of music.

“I can’t hear anything over the music.”

“Good. Go inside and go slow. I’ll need to guide you through the first part.”

“I don’t need any help from you Leo.” Danny opened the door slowly and stepped inside. It closed behind him. He started to creep across to the next door, but realised he couldn’t see where it was.


	6. Chapter Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have two options when I post, one which gives me a big wall of text with no paragraphs and one which splits paragraphs at random. So if the formatting is all messed up that's why.

Danny stared into darkness. He waited a moment. Leo was silent and he realised he was going to have to say something. “Its pitch black in here.”

“Still don’t need my help? Move slightly to your left.”

Danny wasn’t impressed with Leo’s tone. Yeah if you set up everything and know exactly what’s coming it’s probably easy to feel superior. Nevertheless he stepped to his side, hand out feeling for the wall in the darkness.

“No, I meant turn left. It’s ok, just go back,” Leo said, with exaggerated patience.

Danny followed his directions, moving back and turning slightly to his left. Whatever game Leo was playing he was sick of it already. Apparently your other senses were supposed to grow stronger when one was taken away. But all he could hear was the thumping bass of the dance track. As for smell, well maybe Watchdogs could make use of that here, all he got were cigarettes and stale sweat. Touch was pretty useless for the moment, and he hoped he wasn’t going to have to rely on taste.

“There you are. Now go straight ahead.”

Danny stepped forward, arms outstretched, until he felt a surface in front of him.

“You can open the door, go ahead.”

Danny gave the door a push. There was a rush of sound as the music grew louder as it swung open. Danny stepped forward, slowly. He felt the door swing closed behind him.

Immediately Leo was speaking again. “Now turn ninety degrees to your left. Two steps forward. There are stairs in front of you. Go down, slow. Now five steps ahead. Turn right. More. Stop. Step forward.”

For the next few minutes Danny focused completely on Leo’s words, stopped moving on his own. For a while there was nothing else as he moved through empty space. Then he bumped into something ahead, bringing him back to earth. It was like a wall which ended at chest height. Danny felt along the top. The wooden surface didn’t seem to have an end. The room seemed to go up a level here, like a huge step.

“You’ll have to pull…” Leo started, but trailed off. Danny waited. “Can you hear that?” Leo asked after a few seconds.

Danny stopped and listened. He thought he heard something behind him. Then it passed and he wasn’t sure it had ever existed. But he could hear something else, just. A high note over the music. A distant scream.

“Climb up.”

Danny pulled himself onto what he realised now must be the stage.

“Straight ahead... ok, not far now. Keep going. You’re about to hit a door.”

Danny pushed open yet another unseen door and walked through. The first thing he saw was the door to his left, outlined in white light. He knew without being told where he had to go. He walked to the door and grasped the handle, pulled it open a crack. The light inside spilled out and he paused as his eyes adjusted. The relief at getting his sight back was immediate. He hadn’t realised how fast he had been breathing until now. There was something primal about the dark that set off his panic response. The light illuminated the backstage area and he glanced back towards the stage. It was still to dark to see anything past the doorway into the main room.

He walked inside, closing the door behind him. The room was empty except for one wall, which had a dozen flickering monitors built into it. Danny walked closer, he put his hands on the back of the swivel chair in front, and leaned in for a closer look. The green glow gave each picture on screen a slightly surreal feel. But there was the dance-floor he must have just walked across, there was the stage, and another level above, encircling the dance floor. There were several hunters patrolling the ground floor, and more on the level above it.

“Sit down,” Leo said. Danny stayed standing, staring at the screen. He had had an idea he wasn’t alone before, but he couldn’t help feeling a burst of anger towards Leo at seeing the proof. The way this whole situation was set up to test him, to push him, it was getting to him.

“So this is what its like to be you? Seeing everything from static camera angles.”

“Sit down.”

Danny sat down. There was a control panel built into the wall ahead of him, under the monitors. The whole set up looked much more professional than the piled up TVs in the asylum. He wondered if it had been here before Leo got hold of this place.

“Don’t worry. They won’t hear you in here. After all, you could hardly hear her.”

“Who?”

“Look up, the screen to the right.”

Danny looked at the screens. He had to check between them for a moment, but then a slight movement on one caught his eye. He moved closer to see. This camera was looking down from the ceiling, giving a birds-eye view of the room. It showed the area behind the bar, on the higher level. A woman was crouched behind the bar. She was almost completely still, bar her breathing. She had her arms tied behind her and she was naked.

“Oh fuck Leo… You can’t do this to people.”

“Why not, it's what this place was designed for? You should know that. Don’t feel too bad for her, she knew what she was getting into. Now, are all the screens working?

“This-” Danny stopped.  Telling Leo this was going too far wasn’t going to do anything. Leo wanted to go too far. He checked. “Yeah, they're working.”

“Good. I need you to check the microphone. The red button turns it on and off, should be foolproof.”

Danny found the microphone built into the desk. He leaned forward and flipped the red switch. “Hello? Can you hear me?”

The woman reacted by stiffening suddenly and screaming, looking around her, and trying desperately to get away.

“Hey, calm down. It’s ok. I'm going to get you out of here, I promise…” Danny kept reassuring her.  After a few minutes the woman went still and silent, only her jagged breath coming over the microphone.

“I'm going to help you. I'm going to get you out of here. I just need you to be calm-”

“Who are you?”

“I’m-”

“Danny!” Leo’s voice broke in.

“What?” Danny moved back from the desk a little and asked quietly.

“Cut the mike.”

“I'll be back, just stay there.”

“No. don’t go-” The woman’s voice was desperate.

Danny pressed the red switch quickly, before he could feel too bad about it. “Leo, why are you…” He trailed off, not sure what he wanted to ask. Why was Leo doing this? Deep down he knew exactly why Leo was doing this, because he wanted to, and because he could.

“Try zooming in,” Leo said.

Danny said nothing. He watched the monitor where the woman struggled and screamed.

“Not too enthusiastic about this one? Rather be out there in the middle of it? I know the feeling. Right, I'm going to turn this mike off. I’ll be helping out the pervs so I’ll need to focus on that.”

“What?”

“I’ll give you a head start. Two minutes ok? Otherwise it wouldn’t be fair.” He paused, as though waiting for Danny to say something. Danny was silent. “Have fun.”

Danny looked at the woman on screen. This woman wasn’t an actor, he could tell. His eyes flickered to the other screens. All he could do was sit here, and try to help her, and with the amount  of hunters, she was probably going to die. He had thought he could handle this, but right now he just wanted to turn and run. He couldn’t do this, couldn’t be responsible for leading her into her death. But he couldn’t leave her either. He was probably her only chance at getting out of here. Danny took a deep breath and switched the microphone on.

“Can you hear me? I'm not going to leave you again. Are you ok? Are you hurt?”

“Who are you?” She was talking fast, panicking.

“My name is Danny. I'm a friend. I'm going to help you. I need you to trust me.”

“You’re one of them. You must be.”

“I don’t want to be here any more than you. Believe me. What’s your name?”

“I need to get out of here. I can’t stay here. Please help me.”

“I will.” Danny said, with as much certainty as he could.

Danny looked at the woman, then at the control panel in front of him. He had no idea how to help her, the chains appeared to be attached to the floor, so the first thing was to get those unlocked. He pressed the unmarked buttons in front of him until he found the one which zoomed in on the woman. As he did something on the floor in front of her caught his eye. He angled the camera and zoomed in closer. “The keys are in front of you. Can you reach them... try with your feet... a bit to the side. I mean left... your left.” Danny watched as the woman got the keys, pushed them behind her and hurried to unlock the chains.

“How can I get out? I can’t see anything.” She stood, half-crouched, arms across her chest, looking blindly around her.

“Don’t worry, I can guide you out. But you have to go now.”

“What about my boyfriend. I can’t leave him.”

“Where is he?”

“I don’t know. They’ve got him… I haven’t seen him since... they've done things to him... the last time I saw him-”

“I’ll help him, I promise. But right now I need you to concentrate on what's happening here. I just need you to keep calm, trust me and I will get you out of here.”

“Ok.” The woman was silent for a moment. When she spoke again she sounded a little calmer. “I can’t see. I need a light.”

“That wouldn't be a good idea.”

“Why?”

Danny glanced at the other cameras. It looked like the one guard on the same level had stopped moving. He had his hand up to his ear. Danny remembered what Leo had said. Two minutes. How long had it been?

“Right, I need you to turn 90 degrees.” The woman turned towards the bar. “I meant the other way. And again. Once more. Ok, step forward about five steps. And feel up. No to your side and up. The wall.”

The woman's hand hit glass and she lifted both hands to feel the case.

“There’s a glass box here... How can you see me?” She glanced behind her.

Danny looked at the cameras, to see the hunter moving her way. “Stay quiet!” She probably wouldn’t be heard above the music, but he wasn’t sure, it could be quieter up there.

“Why? What’s going on?”

“Nothing. I just think it would be safer if you didn’t talk from now on.”

“Oh shit! Is there one of them near here? I knew it.”

“Yes but its ok. We can get around them. Now, there's an axe in that cabinet in front of you. Have you got anything-”

The woman smashed the glass with her fists and ripped the axe out. She held it close to her body and spun around.

“Are you..? Alright, stay low, keep the wall to your side and move forward, keep by the wall,” Danny told her, keeping his voice as slow and calm as possible.

The woman moved along, shoulder to the wall, out past the bar and followed the corner round into the corridor. As she moved the guard rushed past her into the room she had just left. She stopped still, looking to her side.

“Keep going! Keep going!”

The woman moved through into the next corridor.

Danny watched her move out of sight on one screen and searched for her on the others. He saw the hunter she had just passed turn and head away from the bar, after her.

Danny found the monitor which showed the woman, at the end of the long circular hallway which led down to the stairs. The hunter couldn

’t be more than a few steps away. “Turn to your right, now forward, go, forward, run! Run!”

She ran, crouched low, arms outstretched. The hunter appeared, walking behind her, into the space where she had stood.

Danny’s eyes flicked over the screens. There were a couple more hunters ahead. This was going to be tough.

The woman hit the corner and followed it round with her hands. She took a hesitant step forward. “You’re heading the right way. Keep on straight ahead. Just take it slow.”

She started forward, too fast, into the path of the hunter in front.

“Move to your side, stay close to the wall.” He told her, forgetting she had no idea which side.

She did move the right way, but not far enough. When she ran past the hunter stepped close and brushed against her. Immediately she turned after him, swinging the axe and missing. He shouted something, whirling round, just heard by Danny.

“Swing again! In front of you!”

She swung and connected with the guard’s face. He raised his hands to his face, falling to his knees. He got up as she backed away, looking around frantically.

“Don’t move. Stay where you are. No, move! Now! To your side... No, the other way!”

The woman swung the axe around her in a semi-circle, dropping it low. She hit the man in the ankles. He fell to the floor with a scream.

“Back up! Back away. Keep your axe-”

The woman scrambled away from the man. One of his hands clutched his ankle, his other grabbed for her.

“Turn left! Stop!”

Another hunter appeared, running unsteadily towards her. He sprinted in the general direction of the woman, missing her and running past only to trip over the injured man. The new hunter righted himself and took a step closer to the woman, who was still crouched on the floor.

“Up! Run!”

The woman stood and ran, sprinting forward as Danny shouted at her to keep going.  She reached the stairs and Danny just had time to shout at her to slow down before she was stumbling down them, surprisingly graceful, she slipped and skidded down a few but managed to keep going. She hit the ground. She was next to the dance floor now, on a raised level used for seating, while the hunter was still at the top of the stairs, taking it slower than she had.

“Straight ahead!” Danny said. “You’re losing him, just keep going.” She ran on towards the last smaller set of stairs, the ones which led directly onto the dance floor. “You’re by the stairs.” Danny said. As he did she stumbled and fell. Her lead evaporated as the hunter behind her reached the floor and ran towards her. He grabbed for her, just missing in the dark. “Get up!” Danny shouted. She rolled away across the floor and onto the stairs, falling to the bottom and standing up. The hunter followed her, reaching for her as he leapt down the steps, his finger-tips touching, but she was already running. He took off after her. Danny leaned forward, eyes fixed on one monitor. His mouth was dry, he wanted to tell her to keep going, but the words wouldn’t come out. He knew there was nothing he could do now, only watch. The two figures ran across the dance floor, madly, unseeing.

“Stop!” Danny shouted.  The woman slammed into the railings, knocking the axe from her hands. The man ran into her from behind and tackled her to the floor, on top of her he aimed his fist at her face, glancing her and landing the punch half on the floor. She struggled underneath him, trying to push him off. He grabbed at her throat.

“To your left! The axe!”

The woman scrabbled around for the axe with her free hand, the other trying to push the man away as he got a grip on her neck.

“Come on! Grab it!”

The woman got a grip on the axe handle and swung it up onto the hunter above her. On the first swing the axe smashed into his chest and he lurched back, on the second he stuck out his hand and tried to grab the axe, but it slipped past and lodged in his shoulder. The woman pulled the axe back out with an effort. The man tried to move away and rolled off of her to the side, clutching his wound.

The woman stood up quickly. She looked blankly in front of her. “Is he dead?”

Danny looked at the hunter on the floor, he was still moving. He wasn’t sure how badly hurt the man was, whether he would be getting up again. “Step forward. Raise the axe above your head. That’s right. Go on.”

She brought the axe down on the man a couple of times. Too lightly, Danny thought, but it did the job eventually.

“That’s it. You did it.”

She bent down, putting the axe behind her and feeling the still body. Danny sat back in his chair, letting out a long breath. They were finished. He could guide her in here, he didn’t know what would happen then, but at least this was over. He stared ahead, not focusing, thinking, and a movement caught his eye. Something moved across one of the monitors ahead. He searched for it, and saw a hunter run down the stairs from the upper level, heading towards the woman. This man was carrying an axe too.

“Get up! Quick!”

“What? What’s going on?”

“There’s still one left.”

The woman was crouched down by the body. She searched behind her for the axe, but her hand missed each time. Danny could hear her breath grow faster, knew she was starting to panic.

She stood up and ran forward, turning to the side as she looked around her.

“No turn left.” She turned to the right, or Danny had sent her the wrong way, he wasn’t sure. She moved closer to the stairs the hunter had almost reached. “No go back, go back!” He could see the axe behind her, not two feet away.

The man stumbled down the stairs towards her.

“Leave it. Run, now, towards the stage, I mean right! No, stay by the railing!”

The woman stopped and doubled back.

“No! Turn around, keep moving!”

The woman ran back and stopped, looking around her. The hunter ran past her, then stopped, ahead of her on the dance floor. He turned back, his axe flying round with him.

“Get down! Just stay there, I'm coming.”

Danny stood and ran out of the room. He ran into the darkness of the main club, across the stage till he felt nothing beneath his feet and dropped forward onto the dance floor. He held the pliers in his hand. This was a stupid idea, a really stupid idea. He tried to point himself in the direction the woman had been. He ran forward, every step expecting to run into a sharp blade and finding nothing.

Then something smacked into the back of his head, forcing him forward. He stumbled, grabbing in front of him. His fingers felt fabric and he  held on and slipped to the floor, pulling someone down on top of him. He rolled away and felt the ground shudder as something slammed down into it next to him. Danny reached out and grabbed the axe and wrenched it out of the grasp of whoever was holding it. It fell to the floor soundlessly as Danny launched himself forward. He stabbed the flesh in front of him with the pliers, in the dark he felt the head, the short hair and stabbed harder. He was on top of the body when something crashed into him from behind, knocking him off. He scrambled up and away. He looked around, wielding the pliers in a semi-circle. The lights came on, blinding white. Danny saw the woman, close in front of him. She raised the axe above her head.

“Stop! It’s me, Danny.”

The woman paused and lowered the axe. She looked at the bodies lying around the room.

“Oh God.” The axe clattered to the floor.

Danny followed her gaze and then glanced up, to where he knew the cameras must be. He could see one above the stage, another in the corner near the door. He looked back at the woman, who seemed dazed, staring at the carnage. Stepping forward he put his hand on her arm. “You have to get out of here. Now, while you still can.” The woman focused on Danny. She looked at him but didn’t reply. He realised he had never found out her name. It seemed a bit late now.

He led her up the stairs and through the door by the bar and along the corridor to the club entrance. At the main door they stopped and he pushed it open a crack, checking that no-one was there. It was dark now, the night air was cold, and welcoming after the stale air of the club. The woman looked past him, out onto the street, unbelieving. “Can I really go?”

“Wait a minute.” Danny undid his shirt, pulling it off and handing it to the woman. She pulled it on hurriedly, fingers slipping on the buttons. She stared out through the door at the street outside. Then she glanced up at Danny. “Thank you.” Her expression changed. “But, Luke, my boyfriend.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll find him. I’ll get him out. I promise. Just go.” He had to hurry her, she was in danger as long as she stayed here.

“I don’t have anywhere to go.”

Danny glanced out the door. His eyes were drawn to the spire of the church, rising above the city.

“Go to the church, that's where I’ll send your boyfriend, if I can- that’s where I’ll send him.”

She nodded. She moved past him, ran into the street and disappeared into the night. Danny turned around. He walked back down the corridors and onto the dance floor. When he reached it he picked up an axe and headed onto the stage, and through into the room with the monitors. He sat down in the chair, put in the earpiece and turned it on.

“I knew you couldn’t resist getting in there.”

Danny stared at the screens, now blinding white. He lowered his head into his hands.

“You saved her, how does that feel Danny?”

There was silence for a moment. Danny reached up and felt the back of his head, it was sore and there was a small lump, dried blood had matted his hair, but it was not bleeding anymore.

“You’re a fucking hero!”

Danny stood up and walked out of the room, into the half-lit area behind the stage.

“Why so quiet? You’re not thinking of giving up?”

Danny laughed, looking around the room. His eyes settled on the central door.

“You see that door in front of you? That’s where you’re going. If you didn’t enjoy that, don’t worry, you'll love this. You’re going to be right in the middle of the action.”

Danny pushed open the door and stepped inside. He saw a short corridor lined with doors, with one more door at the end. As he walked along he tried to open each one and found them locked. There was something about this place

… He held his head as a memory came back with the force of a sledgehammer. Dismembered body parts, roughly cut and laid out on trolleys. He was walking down a corridor, with screaming coming from behind locked doors, blood staining the drainage grates in the concrete floor. A body covered in a blue sheet. The sound of smashing glass and then a masked man was coming right at him, wielding an axe.

He heard Leo’s voice. “Danny? Danny?”

Danny straightened up. Back to the wall he had been leaning on for support. “What is this place?”

“Don’t you remember? You used to work here.”

“No.” He shook his head.

“Why don’t you go on ahead and see if you remember any more.”

Danny looked at the door at the end of the corridor. He stepped forward slowly and opened it, then hesitated in the doorway for a moment. He could hear a man screaming for help. He descended the stairs ahead and headed in the direction of the cries.

Axe in hand, he moved across a tiled floor. This area set off a memory in him but he blocked it out, focusing on the here and now. It was empty. There were benches on one side, dim lights above them, and a row of steel doors on the other. Crouched low, he crept closer to the cells, passing the two quiet ones and stopping outside the last. He glanced through the small window in the door. Inside there was a man strapped to a table. A guard was standing between him and Danny, he held a cattle prod in one hand and a scalpel in the other. He brought the stick down on the prisoner's stomach. It crackled as the victim screamed. Slowly, Danny pushed open the door. Sneaking forward, he raised the axe behind the torturer's head, who was too engrossed in his task to notice.

Danny swung, hitting the spot and chopping through half of the man’s neck in one blow. The guard fell forward, on top of the trolley and the bound man, and then tumbled down onto the floor. Danny brought the axe down again, separating the head from the body. Dropping the axe he hurriedly unstrapped the man on the table.

The victim jumped up, pushed Danny out of the way and grabbed up the axe from the floor. He backed away, looking behind him, adopting a defensive stance. “Who the fuck are you?”

The man was tall and wiry. He was dirty, the general built-up grime of not having washed for a long time. The vest he wore had once been white, and his jeans were worn to shreds. His eyes locked onto Danny‘s, his stare demanded answers. Danny had to look away. Behind the man there was a space in the wall, maybe once for a window or mirror, but it was empty now and a tripod with a camera mounted on the top peeped through from the room behind. Danny’s eyes drifted across the room, the bloodstains half scrubbed off the walls, the tools laid out on the table, the dead man on the floor. He was at a loss for what to say, how to explain all this.

“Doesn’t matter. So long as you aren't one of them perverts,” the man continued. He walked past Danny and out the door.

Danny picked up the stun prod from the floor. “I saw your girlfriend. She’s ok,” he called after him. He had some good news after all.

“What girlfriend?” He heard the man ask.

Danny stepped out of the doorway to see the man looking back at him questioningly. There was someone behind him, sneaking across the floor. Danny’s mouth seemed to seal up for a second before he could force the words out. “Look out!” he shouted, knowing it was too late.

The man started to turn as the hunter ran forward and slammed a baseball bat into his skull, knocking him to the floor. The hunter didn't pause, jumped over the body and ran towards Danny, who backed away into the cell.

Leo broke in. “Come on Danny, fight! You can do it!”

Danny kept backing up until his legs hit the wall and his back hit the empty space where glass should be. The hunter advanced.

“Don’t get backed into a corner, get out of there!”

Danny fell backwards through empty space and into the camera-room. As the hunter leapt over the divider Danny jumped up and shoved the stun prod into his face. The hunter’s eye fizzed and exploded with a pop as he landed on top of Danny, as Danny stuck out his free hand, grabbing the axe and deflecting it away from his body. The hunter tried to move back and Danny moved with him, pushing the prod deeper in the new space created, till his back hit the wall. Danny held the stick there, digging it in while the hunter shook, and the axe fell from his limp hand to the floor. Danny drew back. The guard stayed sat there, slumped and lifeless.

“Nice one Danny.”

Danny climbed back over the partition. He walked out of the cell and into the main room. He looked down at the body of the man. Why the fuck hadn’t he stopped him going out there on his own? He should have saved him. It was too late now. He checked through the windows of the other two cells to make sure there was no-one else there. Then he looked at the door at the end of the hall. This felt like the end. He hoped so.

Danny gripped the cattle prod, just in case, as he walked through the empty doorway and into the small connecting room. He tried the heavy door at the far end. It didn’t move. “This is it. This is where I'm meant to go?” he asked.

“You’re not finished yet. Head to your right.”

Danny saw a wire gate to his right. He opened it and headed into another similar looking area with three cells. He could hear a low moaning sound, and a regular short buzzing. Danny just stood there. He had already done this once, wasn’t that enough? He was sick of this, he couldn’t deal with it anymore. He had just let that guy die, the woman would probably die of exposure, the kids were fucked. There was no real win possible, only momentary survival.

“You promised that nice lady you'd save her boyfriend, didn’t you?”

He just had to get through this. The last guy hadn’t been his fault, just bad luck. This was almost over now, he could feel it. Disassociate himself, get through it.

Danny walked to the first door and looked inside. He saw the back of a woman with long dark hair, sat in a metal chair. As he watched the buzzing started again and she jolted repeatedly. There was a smell that made him wrinkle his nose. There didn’t seem to be anyone else in the room. He tried to open the door.

“I can’t get in.”

“So try another way.”

Danny wandered over to the next cell. It was open and empty and clean. Nothing inside except the mirror at the end.

Danny waited a moment, and then when the buzzing sound was at its loudest he pulled out the pliers and smashed the glass. He pulled the glass shards out of the way and climbed over. There was a control station in front and two doors on either side. The door to his right was locked. He opened the door to his left and walked in. Through the glass he saw the woman sat in front of him. Her eyes were wide, they stared ahead at nothing. She was still, except when the electricity jolted through her, then every feature became animated, moving as though in life. She had blackened skin where the electrodes were attached. The rest of her skin was brown and hanging off her. She had obviously been dead a while.

“Ah, too late.”

Danny felt a little bit of anger, a little energy chasing away the numbness. He looked away from the woman and he concentrated on what he could hear. Underneath the buzz of the chair, there was still that distant groaning. There was someone still alive here. He could hear them. He would help them, even if he couldn’t help this woman anymore.

He climbed back through the broken mirror. He walked out and over to the next cell, wasting no time. The moaning grew louder. He crouched outside the cell and looked up through the small window. There was a hunter inside, and someone strapped down to a table. The person, Danny couldn’t tell if they were male or female, was very thin, no hair, naked and appeared to have burns over most of their body. The flesh had been peeled from part of their leg. The hunter was heating a red hot metal rod with a blowtorch and touching it to exposed thigh muscle. Danny caught the smell and stumbled away. He backed away down the corridor. “Oh god…” He had kind of expected something like this, but it was different to actually see it.

“What? That’s nothing compared to some of the things that used to go on here. Trust me.”

“That’s... that’s sick. How can you do that to people?”

“I'm just continuing the project's fine work. This place has always been their dumping ground. Too crazy for the asylum, or just some drunk off the street, all kinds of debris ended up here. You didn’t mind so much, not when the results were so useful-”

“No. I never... not anything like that.”

“Why don’t you make it right Danny? You can save him.”

Danny moved back against the far wall, backing up away from the cell. He raised his hand to his mouth.

“I can’t.”

“Oh, you're just going to leave him like that? You promised you'd save him Danny.”

“I can’t. He wouldn’t survive. Not like that.”

“Then do the decent thing. Put him out of his misery.”

Danny slowly stepped forward and walked to the cell door. He entered, and when the hunter looked up in surprise Danny hit him with the cattle prod, over and over, so simple and easy to do, without even thinking about it, till he lay still on the floor. He looked at the man on the table, who was silent except for his

laboured breathing. Danny dropped the prod and searched through the implements on the nearby table. He picked up a scalpel and jammed it into the burned man's neck, cutting a clean line across, the blood came spraying out, coating the both of them. Danny watched as the man died. He dropped the scalpel onto the floor and walked over to the other side of the room, where he sank down, sitting with his knees up, arms wrapped around them, head buried, and back against the wall. “I can’t do it,” he said faintly.

“You did it Danny. It’s over. And you've done well. Really well.” Leo paused. “The door’s open. Come on. You just have to walk out the door and its over.”

“I can't. I’m not doing this anymore. I can't do it.”

“Danny, you are not going to give up. If you don’t get out there are going to be other guards coming. Do you understand? Get up or you are going to die.”

Danny pulled the earpiece out and tossed it onto the floor. He sat in the cell. He could hear a low buzzing from the earpiece. He thought back to his childhood, his past, as far back, as far away from here as he could go. He bent his head down, into his arms, into the dark. He relaxed. He could hear a gentle buzzing sound, it was soothing.  He heard someone walked into the cell. He didn’t look up. He wasn’t sure if he was here or not anymore, and he felt no need to find out. He felt someone come close and a sting in his arm. Everything faded away.


	7. Chapter Seven

Danny saw grey stone ahead of him. He saw where the blocks reflected the bright light, shining silver, and those further away where the light didn’t reach, fading away into shadow. He lay there, watching as the surface moved in and out of focus. He was lying back, and could feel a familiar slight pressure on his wrists and ankles - restraints. He wasn’t worried. He knew where he was, the asylum, though this was a room he had never seen before.

He drifted thoughtlessly, watching the ceiling, until it was like a light snapped on in his brain. No, he was wrong. He couldn’t be in the asylum, that was a long time ago. Where was he exactly? He was alert suddenly, on the surface just curious, but there was an uneasy feeling in the back of his mind that told him he might not want to know the answer. He let his head fall to the side, to look at the wall he lay next to. It was the same grey stone, there was something brown in the concrete gaps between the blocks, like rust. The past unfolded, along with the knowledge of where he was, what happened in these cells.

Before his conscious mind could process the thought he was struggling, pulling desperately at the straps which bound him to the table. There was a flood of information to his brain, in the same instant he realised there was something blocking his mouth, he felt the wood scrape beneath his bare back, and he heard someone move behind him.

He turned as far as he could, lifting his shoulders off the table. Twisting round, trying to push himself up with his hands, which were bound out to the side near his waist. He saw a figure in the corner of the room behind him. He was surprised at the relief he felt when he realised it was Leo. Then Danny saw the table full of surgical instruments behind Leo, the scalpel in his hand.

Danny collapsed back, unable to hold himself in that position for long. He heard footsteps and saw Leo appear above him, scalpel in hand, smiling down in greeting. Leo reached out and grasped Danny’s chin, held his head still. Danny looked up at Leo and saw the eagerness in his eyes and realised Leo had already decided what he was going to do, there was no way he could stop him. He felt the fight go out of him. He was fucked. His eyes were drawn to the scalpel, which was heading towards his face.

“So Danny, you're going to give up at the first sign of trouble?” Cold metal touched the skin just below his ear. Leo ran the scalpel along the side of Danny’s chin and into the curve of his neck, pressing down lightly on the skin but not enough to break it. Danny was still, barely breathing, waiting.

“I should teach you what happens when you stop fighting.” Leo moved his hand to Danny’s hair, gripped tight, and ran the knife along to the front of his throat. Danny’s survival instinct kicked in then and he instinctively jerked his head away. He struggled, realising he was causing the knife to drag against his skin but unable to stop himself pulling away. The blade lifted and Danny felt the tip dig into his cheek and froze. The knife dug under the gag, cutting through the fabric. Leo pulled it from Danny’s mouth.

“Leo-” Danny gasped out.

Leo covered Danny’s mouth with his hand. “No. Shut the fuck up. You’ve made enough decisions for the both of us. Now it’s my turn. I’m going to talk and you're going to listen.” Danny could see real anger in Leo’s eyes, for the first time since they had met again at the storage yard.

Leo seemed to catch himself. He moved a few steps back and took a good look at Danny, surveying him. “I’ve seen you like this a few times Danny. But never from this perspective. It’s interesting.”

Danny opened his mouth to speak but Leo raised his knife and met his eyes meaningfully. “I know you tried hard out there. I saw you.” Leo said, he sounded like he was trying to convince Danny. “Look at you. You even gave them the shirt off your back, literally. But it’s your fault they were in that situation in the first place. You created this place, you created me. You do understand that?

Danny stared up at the ceiling, defiant.

“And in the end, you let them down. You gave up. And you can’t afford to give up here. What can I do to show you that?” Leo stepped closer, taking hold of Danny’s chin, forcing him to look up into his eyes. He brushed his thumb gently along Danny’s jaw line. “I am trying to help you Danny.  You need to defend yourself if you're going to survive here. You could act a little more grateful.”

“Fuck you, Leo.” Danny spat out each word, breaking through the fear, it was a relief to say it.

Leo smiled and stuffed the gag back in Danny’s mouth. “If anyone deserves to be punished for what happens here it’s you…” He picked up the scalpel and trailed it down Danny’s chest. Danny stiffened. He looked down, seeing the little spots of blood appear before he felt the sting. 

“I could get the boys in here, let them play with you. The shit they’d do to you. It might be entertaining to see them tear you apart.” Leo looked at Danny’s face and must have seen the right response because he smiled and said softly, “I’m messing with you Danny. Don’t worry. You’re all mine.” He dragged the scalpel down Danny’s stomach, digging progressively deeper into the flesh. Danny looked away, up at the ceiling. There was a sort of spiders trail up there, probably leading to a web in one of the dark corners. One thin razor-wire stretched across the roof. He was actually glad of the gag. He knew he would break, he was already broken, he had no reserves left to fight now. At least with the gag he couldn’t beg.

When Leo reached Danny’s bellybutton he put the knife down. Danny relaxed, then tensed again, as he felt Leo undo the belt and the fly of his jeans. He raised his head up, looking down at his exposed body. The red line on his chest seemed like an arrow pointing down. Leo pulled Danny’s cock out of his underwear.  “I could cut you up Danny.” Leo smiled at him. “But that would be a waste. This will be much more satisfying for both of us.”

Leo gripped tightly around the base of Danny’s cock. Danny felt his body tense involuntarily. Leo pulled his jeans and underpants down further with his other hand. Danny tried to press his back and ass to the stretcher as he felt them slide away under him. “Relax. You’ll enjoy it more.”

Leo stroked up and down, his grip tight. Danny let his head drop back, he closed his eyes as his cock started to react. He had to admit, this felt good. It had just been so long since anyone had touched him like this. Leo knew exactly what to do, well of course he did. Danny pulled at the straps on his wrists, trying to find some give, to curve his hand through. It had never worked before, it was not going to work now. But he had to try something. He was ashamed of not being able to stop this, and of the part of him that said that this was a lot better than what Leo could do to him, so maybe he should just give in and try to enjoy it. Because it was starting to feel really good. But he knew even if this was ok, what it would lead to wasn’t. Leo was not going to just give him a hand-job and leave it at that.

“Stay still,” Leo whispered, and it was both tender and a threat. Danny did, because he had run out of options. Danny felt Leo move quicker now, until he reached that perfect speed, and then he slowed down, loosened his grip just a little. Danny arched his back, moved his hips up, realised what he was doing and stopped. He hoped Leo hadn’t noticed that.

“Enjoying yourself Danny?”

Danny ignored him. He stared to his side at the wall, with its remnants of bloodstains that had been rinsed off, but still cast beige shadows up and down it. He tried to concentrate on that, the people who had suffered here and lost their lives. He couldn’t move far enough to see, but there must be the same mirror behind him. Fuck, he hoped Leo wasn’t filming this. He felt Leo’s hand at his lips and twitched away. Leo reached after him, pulling the cloth from his mouth.

“Talk to me Danny. Is this working for you?” Danny took a sharp breath in as Leo’s free hand cupped his balls while the other kept sliding up and down his cock. Danny closed his eyes and ignored Leo. Maybe he should just get it over with, he didn’t know anymore. He tried to picture someone else touching him, his first girlfriend, some random woman, anyone but Leo. He was surprised when he actually began to feel less aroused. Leo must have felt a change too. For a second Danny felt the grip on his dick removed. Then a different sensation engulfed him, hot and wet. There for an instant and gone. By the time he opened his eyes Leo was already lifting his head, his hand returning to Danny’s cock. Danny closed his eyes again but it was no use, he couldn’t get that image of Leo out of his head. Why did his body react like that? Why did it  turn him on so much? Because of the situation? Because Leo was a guy? He wasn’t attracted to Leo. Even if he was, it was only in the most basic, physical sense. He realised that was the first time he had admitted it to himself. And yeah, he was. Shit.

Danny opened his eyes to see Leo watching him. “Why are you doing this?” Danny managed to ask.

“If you give up like a bitch you get treated like a bitch, get it?”

Danny looked at Leo, then quickly looked away. The way Leo was watching him didn’t fit with his words, he was staring at him as though he was studying him, absorbing him. Danny looked back and he was still watching him the same way, but his eyes looked so guarded. Danny knew why he was doing this. Leo was trying to humiliate him, it was all about control. He was showing Danny what happened when he didn’t go along with his games. But the look on Leo’s face didn’t fit with that at all. Danny closed his eyes.

Leo’s thumb brushed across the tip of Danny’s cock and down over the soft underside. Danny let a little gasp of breath escape.

He felt the warmth of the hand move away. “Do you like this?” Leo asked, insistent. He made it sound like the most important question on earth.

Danny looked up to see Leo stood still beside him, still with those blank, all seeing eyes. What was the right answer? “Yes… No… I don’t know.” He just wanted to come, he thrust his hips upwards, he would deal with everything else later.

Leo’s face finally relaxed into a grin. He placed his hand back. Danny felt that grip return, that warmth, that tightness, sliding up and down. He shut his eyes. “Look at me,” Leo ordered. Danny did, because right now Leo stopping was the worst thing that could happen. He watched Leo’s face, smile triumphant, eyes that were sure they had proved something, as he thrust and came in his hand.

It splattered over his stomach. Danny relaxed back, staring up at the ceiling, enjoying the moment. He could see the shape of Leo out of the corner of his eye. Still standing over him. “Enjoy that?”

Danny ignored him, he closed his eyes again. He heard Leo walk away. A moment later the scrape of metal on metal.

Danny’s eyes shot open. “What are you doing?”

“I'm not going to hurt you Danny. I told you that.” Leo sounded irritated, impatient.

Danny looked behind him. Leo was in the corner, busying himself with the tools on the metal table. Danny watched him for a moment, he didn’t turn around. If it was anyone else Danny would have guessed they were embarrassed about what just happened, but this being Leo, that seemed unlikely.

Danny relaxed back and looked over at the door. He had to say something. Had to try. This time was probably as good as any. It was better than talking about what had just happened at least. “Leo, those people out there. You have to stop this.”

“Why? It’s what this place is designed for.”

“You can’t do that to people. You have to shut this place down, please.”

“They’re not real. Not like you and me. Just toys to play with.”

“It doesn’t matter. It’s too much...that last guy. It’s too-”

“He kind of reminded me of you.”

Danny was silent. He listened for Leo and heard nothing. The silence grew until he heard Leo move abruptly behind him and saw him walk past towards the door.

“Wait!” Leo turned and looked back at him. Danny hated having to ask Leo for anything but he couldn’t take being left here, having to lie here helpless and alone in this cell. He had seen what a happened to people in here. He imagined lying here, waiting for that door to open. “Don‘t just... don’t go.”

Leo stood there watching him and again Danny realised he had no idea what he was thinking.

“You can stay here, you’ll be safe, as long as you don’t try to leave,” Leo said, and then crossed over the room to him. “Or,” he leaned over and loosened the strap on Danny’s wrist, “you can go, walk out that door and keep on fighting. It‘s up to you. Either way, I‘ll be seeing you.”

Danny looked down. The strap was just loose enough to pull his hand through. He stayed still, watching Leo. As Leo stepped back he couldn’t help glancing behind him at the table of useful sharp surgical instruments. Leo followed his gaze. Danny met his eyes but Leo didn’t say anything, just turned away and headed out the door.

Danny just lay there a moment, looking at the door. Expecting Leo to come back in. Then he pulled his arm out of the strap. With awkward fingers he undid the other straps. He stood up, his limbs adjusting to having to carry his weight again. He pulled up his jeans, eyes still on the door, still expecting Leo to come back in any minute. What was he thinking, he must know he wasn’t going to stay here? Yeah, he probably did. Danny supposed he was more fun to hunt down than to torture. A fact he probably should be grateful for. But right now nothing sounded worse than getting up, running, killing again. He was almost tempted to call Leo’s bluff, stay here. What would happen if he did? Instead he forced himself on over to the table and picked up a couple of the more interesting looking tools.


	8. Chapter 8

He kept to the backstreets and walked as fast as he could without breaking into a run, head down, not making eye contact with anyone he passed. He didn’t want to draw attention. It had been easy so far. The only person he had met making his way out of the club had been the guy whose clothes he now wore. Black jeans and hoodie, he wrapped his arms around him to hide the bloodstained hole over the stomach. No-one seemed to notice him, all too concerned with their own lives to pay attention to someone who seemed only slightly suspicious and mildly threatening.

He had to move onto the busier streets eventually. He was heading out of the city, he didn’t know where to, he just had to get out, and this was the fastest way. Stepping out onto the corner of a busy road he looked around to get his bearings, while traffic rocketed past. Against the skyline the spire of the church rose in the distance. He thought of the woman and for a moment he considered going after her. But would she be there? It had been night when he sent her off. He didn’t know how much time had passed at the club but it must be the next afternoon at least. And if he went there he might lead pursuers to her. They both had to watch out for themselves now.

Danny followed the road until he started to pass more homes than office blocks. He headed into the suburbs. He walked through identical estates for hours, finally taking a direct route through the backyards as the area became poorer and the roads seemed to circle around on themselves. Until he vaulted over a garden wall, and into some deserted field. Ahead of him he saw the land laid out, dotted with tracks, trees and the occasional building. The sun was sinking low, pink and orange melting over the distant wooded hills. The light spread out towards him, over the patchy grass and litter. He stood and drank it in. Despite the barrenness of the wasteland it was a beautiful sight, so different to the dull grey of the densely packed streets. He was out of the city. A road led up into the hills on the horizon, winding through the trees. He knew if he went that way he would find his way back to where he started. He could try again to forget all this and start over. He tore his eyes away. Across the wasteland there were a group of large expensive houses in the distance. Something, another part of him was telling him there was something very familiar about them.

He headed across the scrubland, towards the buildings. He walked without thinking. Trusting the part of him he didn’t understand felt right in a world that didn’t make sense. It was dark by the time he reached the houses.

He stopped outside one house, a large brick two story with a long drive and a gate that swung open when pushed. Danny walked up the gravel drive and knocked on the door. A minute later an elderly woman opened it. She was smartly dressed with her hair tied back in a bun and had a respectable, professional air. “Danny. Come in.” She smiled slightly. She seemed to have been expecting him.

“Dr Whyte?” Danny asked. He wasn’t sure who he had been expecting.

The woman stepped back inside and Danny looked behind her, into a spotless oak and cream hallway. He looked back to Whyte, who smiled at him, waiting.

He hesitated, unsure. Hadn‘t he killed Laura? He was losing it. “You look... you look older.”

“It’s been a while since I saw you last. And a long time since the last time you would remember seeing me.“

“How long?” Danny asked. What did that mean, remember seeing me?

“Almost seven years. How have you been Danny?” There was something slightly weary about her voice. Like she was going over lines long practiced. Like she was trying to make it seem like she cared.

“I don’t know. I don’t remember.”

“You look exhausted. Come inside. You’ll need to rest.” She was standing aside, holding the door open for him, but he hesitated.

“I can’t... Leo, he's coming. He’ll follow me here.”

“I know. But don’t worry. You have time. Come with me.”

Whyte led Danny in to a long hallway. He followed her up the stairs and through a heavy door into to a bedroom.

“Take a shower and put on some fresh clothes. Then come downstairs and we’ll talk.”

Danny nodded and Whyte left, closing the door behind her. There was a double bed in the middle of the room, a sturdy wardrobe in the corner, a long half-curtained window running along one wall. The ceilings in here were high, the room almost as tall as it was wide. He had never felt comfortable in these huge old houses, too many ghost stories as a kid. He walked through the next door into a small en-suite bathroom. It was all olive green and faded white walls, looked like it hadn’t been redone with the rest of the house. He filled the bath and undressed, pulling off the bandage on his shoulder. He looked in the mirror and saw a small, still healing red scratch, rather than the gaping wound that he knew should be there.

When he got into the bath he relaxed and lay back in the water. He realised right away it had been a mistake, he should have had a shower. Yeah the water felt nice, but it gave him time to think. He went through the last few days, with the uncomfortable feeling that he was heading somewhere he should best avoid. Sure enough he ended up back in that cell with Leo. Reliving each feeling - but only to see what had gone wrong, what had made him react so strangely - right? He sat up, pushing the thoughts away. He was out now, best not to think about it. He was lucky, what would have happened if he had stayed? Maybe he should have, it would be better than constantly running, and he had an idea he was bringing trouble here with him. He wondered if he would go downstairs to find Laura dead. He should leave, keep moving.

In the bedroom he placed his neatly folded clothes on the bed and opened the wardrobe. There were several outfits in his size he could have chosen from. He picked out the simplest, jeans and a navy blue polo shirt, clothes that wouldn’t draw attention.

Dressed, he went downstairs into the hallway and followed the sound of movement into the kitchen. There was a plate of food at the table. Meat and potatoes and veg, he didn’t really register what, as soon as he saw the food he was to hungry to think about anything but eating.

“Sit down Daniel.” Whyte walked over and sat down on the opposite side of the table as him. She looked him over as he ate. “Are you feeling any better?”

“Yes, thanks... you don’t seem surprised to see me?”

“When I saw Leo was back I knew it wouldn’t be long before you turned up.”

“I can’t stop him,” he said. It was an explanation and a warning. She didn’t deserve to die, but who did? Everyone was going to anyway, Leo just brought them to that place a little bit sooner. But not him. Leo didn’t want to kill him. At least not yet.

She put her hand on Danny’s. “You can.”

“I can’t. He just keeps coming back.”

“You can’t give up, you need to keep fighting.”

“Dr Whyte, Laura, what’s going on here? I feel like I’m losing my mind.” He could hear the frustration in his voice. He was so sick of everyone else knowing more about this situation him. ”I don’t know what to do.”

“You do. This is your reality Danny, you created it and deep down you decide what happens here. You know what you need to do.”

“No, I don’t.” When Whyte didn’t reply he went on. “I don’t understand at all. Ok, I know this isn’t real. I know I need to wake up, get out of here. But I can’t.”

“What do you think is your next step?” Whyte went into full therapist mode.

“I need to stop Leo, but it’s impossible.”

“It‘s not. You can defeat Leo, you know you can. You are stronger than him Danny.”

“What do I do? Please tell me.” He wanted someone else to do the thinking for once.

“Face him on your own terms. You have more power here than you think. Use it Danny.”

“But I can’t kill him. He just keeps coming back. I should know, I’ve tried enough times.”

“You know what you need to do.”

“I don’t.” He didn’t have a clue what to do. He didn’t even know how Whyte knew so much about it. “How do you know all this? And why are you helping me?”

“Its all you Danny. You’re just finding what you need.” Whyte gave his hand a squeeze and stood up and cleared away the plates. Danny sat there, feeling a little wary of his former mentor. She was reacting differently to everyone else he had met, not oblivious, she knew more. Recently that hadn’t been a good thing. “But how do you know you, this, isn’t real. No-one else seems to.”

Whyte smiled at him. “As I said, you’re just finding what you need. I’ve been very happy here the last few years, but this is your world. You need to do what’s best for you. You can’t stay stuck in your head for the rest of your life. And you can’t let Leo out again.” That thought seemed to galvanise her and she returned to the table, sat down and reached across to take Danny’s hands. “I believe destroying Leo is the first step.”

“But-”

“We don’t have much time. Close your eyes. You need to focus. Pick something in the room, just one thing. And focus on it completely. Focus on changing it.”

　

　


	9. Chapter 9

Danny watched Leo open the door and step inside. He saw him blink as he took in the room’s marble floor and curved white walls. Every surface reflected an almost blinding light that seemed to come from nowhere. Danny waited out of sight, calm and ready.

Rifle raised, Leo approached from between a broken line of bookcases. He stopped to glance down at the project symbol which covered the centre of the floor. Danny had only put the pattern there for historical accuracy. He liked the room, it was pure and perfect in its simplicity. Even so carefully set out in black and white marble, the symbol looked as out of place as a scrawl of graffiti.

Danny took a deep breath and stepped out from behind the bookcase. Leo looked up and raised the gun slightly in his hands. He stood there, he seemed to be waiting for him to speak, but Danny really didn’t have anything to say.

“I thought you would have come up with something more original. Don’t you remember what happened the last time you tried to fight me here?” Leo broke the silence.

“That won’t happen again.” The door opened and a dozen members of the legion ran in, armed. They spread through the room and stood dotted around it.

“Might slow me down.” Leo raised the rifle and aimed. “Do you think they can take me out quick enough to save you? You know what happens when you die? This all starts over again, and you won’t remember a thing. Is that what you want?”

“When did you stop finding ammo Leo? You didn’t question why they were all carrying unloaded guns.”

“I’ve still-”

“No, check if you don’t believe me. You don’t.”

Leo stared at him for a moment, then recognition dawned. He looked indignant, like Danny had cheated him.

There was a rumbling sound from below the floor, reverberating up the walls. The legion started to speak, excited murmurs about God and hell. Danny stepped away from the centre of the room. As he did so there was a sound like paper tearing, but a thousand times louder. A crack opened in the middle of the floor, growing outwards. The legion screamed and one of them shot into the darkness. Leo jumped and fell back to avoid the edge, landing just as the chasm stopped growing. Sitting up, he looked down into the endless blackness. Danny moved forward around the hole to stand above him.

“Kind of impressive.”  Leo shrugged.

Danny picked up Leo‘s gun, which was now loaded. “Stand,” he ordered.

Leo got onto his knees to face Danny. “You’re going to kill me? It won’t change anything. You can’t get rid of me.” Leo didn’t sound scared, but Danny could hear that little edge of fear in Leo’s voice. He knew the balance of power had changed.

“I don’t need to kill you. I could stick you in a cell forever, or have the legion kill you over and over, or bury you under 100 tons of rock. I’ve got plenty of options. It won’t matter if you're dead or alive.” As he spoke Danny looked down at Leo. He kind of liked having this much power over him. He wondered how far Leo would go to save himself. It would only be fair, after… He hated Leo. He always brought out the worst in him.

“You could.” Leo agreed. “So what happened? Last time I saw you were running scared.”

“I talked to Whyte.”

“I knew I should've killed that bitch.”

“Get up.” Danny knew he should feel good about this. He was going to get his revenge. But he looked down at that chasm and it terrified him. He would be condemning Leo to a living death, lying there under miles of earth, aware every moment until he finally died. What would happen to Leo down there? Did it matter? Out of sight, out of mind. He supposed Leo would starve down there, or suffocate, whichever ran out first, flesh or air. And it would happen again and again and again. What he was about to do made him feel sick.

Leo stayed kneeling. “Alright, you’ve made you’re point. You’re the boss now. You win.” Leo raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. “But you’re not going to put me down there, are you? I know you Danny. You don’t have it in you.” Leo smiled at him, so sure of himself.

“Why wouldn’t I? You destroyed my life. You killed my wife.”  Danny tried to think of all the reasons he had to hate Leo. But what kept coming into his head was Leo talking him through the long nights in the asylum, Leo teaching him to shoot, to survive, the time when he still worked for the project, when Leo was the only one he could trust. There was more to Leo than just a mindless killer, he was sure of it. That must be why this was turning out to be so much harder than he expected.

“I didn’t really kill her…”

Danny thought of the tape Whyte had shown him, of Leo, him, murdering Abbie. He stepped closer. “I saw what you did to her.”

Leo was silent. He looked away, back at the Legion members who were watching with interest, mumbling among themselves.

“Why did you do it? You didn’t have to kill her.” He raised the gun, catching Leo’s attention. Danny wanted Leo to laugh in his face, tell him that she had deserved it, how much he enjoyed killing her. That would make this easier.

“I had to do it. She would have pulled you back to the project. I told you before, I regret it.”

Danny wasn’t convinced. He guessed Leo’s sense of self-preservation was kicking in. He had to do this. He owed it to Abbie. He should want to do it. But maybe the time for revenge had passed. It all seemed so far away now. And like Leo had said, none of it was real anyway.

Danny sighed. “Stand up Leo. Let’s get this over with.”

Leo did, finally. “Alright, if you’re sure this is what you want.“ Even when Leo was being reasonable, it was a challenge. Come on, kill me when I’m so reasonable.

Danny positioned himself so Leo was between him and the hole. He didn’t know what to do now, shoot him, push him, let the legion do it? It would be great if Leo would just jump but he guessed that wasn’t going to happen. He wished Leo would threaten, beg, offer to disappear, anything would be better than him just standing there waiting. Danny aimed the gun at Leo’s chest. That seemed like the best thing. Make it as impersonal as possible. But still he hesitated. “This didn’t have to happen. You could have avoided all of this if you had just left me alone. You chose this. Why did you have to do this? Why this whole game?” He was angry, but it was at Leo for making him do this. Putting him in a situation where this was his only option.

“Because it's just who I am, I don’t know... I was trying to help you.”

“Oh come on, you tried to kill me.”

“If I wanted to kill you you'd be dead now.”

“You killed me right here. Right in this spot.”

“That was a long time ago, things were different. Look, before I thought if I got rid of you everything would be better, I could live your life, be a normal person, but it didn’t work out. Because of course I’m not a real person, just the bad part of you. The cancer you managed to cut out.”

“Bullshit.”

“You’re not listening Danny. All this _is_ your fault. You made me this way.  And now you’re going to bury me for doing what you created me to do. And it won’t change a fucking thing.” Leo stopped, as though considering what to say next. “I don’t want to be this. I don’t like this any more than you do. All I think about is killing, killing and Daniel fucking Lamb. Why the fuck do you think I came back?” Leo said it fast, as though it was something he needed to get out but knew he was going to regret. “Because the only time I feel anything good is towards you. I need you Danny. And I fucking hate you for what you’ve done to me. But I need you too. And I know you need me. We‘re a part of each other. We need each other.”

Leo stopped and looked at Danny. For a second their eyes met and there was no hate, no anger in Leo’s, he was just waiting for Danny’s decision. Danny had an urge to reach out and touch Leo, make it all better. Leo was probably right, he was as much to blame for all of this as he was. But what did it matter, when he wasn’t even sure what was real and not anymore. He just wanted all of this to disappear, be just a bad dream. All he wanted was his life, his family. And if he had to screw Leo over to get that he would in a heartbeat. “Im sorry… but I don’t want you, I don’t need you. I just want my life back-”

“Well why didn’t you say so?” Leo interrupted.

“What?” Leo’s tone had changed so quickly, Danny wondered if he had missed something.

“You want your life back? You mean your real life?”

“You know I do.”

“Take it. I don’t want it. You see how far you get without me.”

Danny paused. He had no idea how to get back to his real life, or if he even could. But if Leo had, maybe there was a way. “How?”

“You going to let me go?”

“Will you leave me alone? Me and my family?”

“I won’t bother you. Pretend I don’t exist. I’ll be perfectly happy here.”

“If this is a trick…”

“Yeah, big fucking hole, I know.”

“What are you going to do? You can just give it back?”

Leo shrugged. “It’s worth a try.”

Danny stood looking at Leo, who looked as unsure as he did. Danny let the gun drop to his side. Leo moved forward and kissed him, a surprisingly chaste kiss on the lips.


	10. Chapter 10

Danny recognised that acidic smell, but his brain wasn’t in any state to tell him what it was. He moved his head slightly. His neck and spine exploded with a current of pain that shocked his eyes open. The bright light made him close them again. He rolled over onto his front trying to get away from the smell, the light, the pain that overloaded his senses to find only more stabbing shocking pain. He laid still, waiting for it to go away. Where was he? He could remember the last few days at least, everything was clear for once. In fact every moment was high definition, Leo, the mansion, that kiss. He still felt it on his lips. He could still smell him. Danny opened his eyes. The surface in front of him slipped in and out of focus and then became clear. He was lying on a dirty, stained, sheet-less mattress.

After a few minutes he turned slowly and carefully over onto his back. The pain was an ache. An all over constant broken every bone in his body kind of ache, but not as bad as before. He moved his arm, and it returned in a wave, forcing him to stay still until it subsided. He moved his hand to his face. It was his face, though a little more stubbly than usual. He could feel a tingling in his fingers as blood returned. He raised his head carefully and looked down at himself. He was naked except for a pair of boxers. He could see a dark patch on them where his bladder had given out. There were red marks covering most of his right torso and shoulder. He must have been lying here on his side for a long time.

The light was coming from a window on the other side of the room. It was open a crack, white curtains flowing in the light breeze. The heat told him it must be summer. He sat up a little more, looked around the room. The walls were cream and the floor was brown wood. In front of his eyes specks of dust travelled. He couldn’t make out much without his glasses. He looked to his left. There was a bedside table next to the bed, that was the obvious place. He turned onto his side and winced. Something stung him in the arm, just behind the elbow. He looked down to see a needle hanging out of him, the tip visible beneath a thin cover of skin. He grabbed it, ripped it out. Pulled off the surgical tubing just above. He was sitting up without even knowing it. All pain disappeared as he looked in horror at his arm. The track marks running down it. Oh God, please let it be a suicide attempt. Maybe Leo was a really bad shot. He pulled the stopper out the end of the needle, pulled out some of the hardened brown residue. It crumbled in his hand as he smelt it. He recognised it from his training. So similar to the medicines he had prescribed, diamorphine, pethidine, but not quite the same.

He sat still, tried to figure out what was going on with his body. The aching he felt could just be to do with the near coma state he must have been in. He could only wait and see. He threw the needle to the floor. There was a strange energy building in him. Despite his own inner voice urging caution he couldn’t help but hope. Was he home? He could deal with anything if he was. He pulled himself to the edge of the bed and felt around on the bedside table. His hand moved past the cigarettes, cell phone and loose change and he picked up a glass of water. He looked down into it suspiciously. He poured the water out into the palm of his hand, letting the water spill onto the mattress. Two little pieces of plastic landed in his hand. Contacts. Of course. He hastily put them in.

Blinking, he took a good look around the room. It wasn’t anywhere he had been before. The place looked new, and mostly empty. The main feature was a shiny widescreen TV in front of the bed, sitting on a cardboard box. A pile of bin-bags in one corner, clothes overflowing, his clothes, he realised. There were a couple of large cardboard boxes in another corner. A set of kitchen cupboards ran along one side of the room, with a microwave sat above the last one, shiny and new, he could see the tag on the wire. The door next to the cabinets was just ajar; he could see the white tiles in the room behind. The whole place looked unlived in, like a spare room. Danny swung his legs off the side of the bed and stood up slowly. His back hurt and he felt a wave of heat race to his head as he stood. He steadied himself on the bed until he could move. He looked at the window. He walked, stepping over the tangle of sheets at the end of the bed. Remembering the boxers he pulled them off, disgusted, and threw them behind him onto the bed. He would dump them and the mattress as soon as he could. Along with this whole place hopefully.

He reached the window and pushed it open as far as the glass would go. Leaning out, the clean air hit him. He breathed in, it tasted so good, clearing away the stale smell of the apartment. He just stood there for a minute absorbing the feel of the breeze on his skin. He had never realised something so simple could feel so good. There was another smell on the air. He looked down at the street below. The row of trees that ran along the road were alight with pastel pink blossom. The sun shone down as a lone car rolled past. Danny looked up, over the houses across the street, along the horizon he could see the familiar sights of the city. The buildings all looked reversed. He must be on the opposite side of town from his home. He could see the church spire rising up between the buildings. He looked back at the bedside table where the phone sat. He turned and strode towards it, picking it up and typing in a number.

He put the phone to his ear. It rang and rang. Eventually it clicked. “Hello. You have reached…” Danny listened to his wife’s voice. It was a new message. Not the one they had had when he left. He drank it in and was surprised when it ended. He called back and listened to it again. He couldn’t hear anything in Abigail’s voice, how she was, it was her work voice, devoid of feeling. He left a message at the end. Short and simple, asking her to ring back. He didn’t know what he, or Leo, had done, he didn’t want to scare her off.

He sat there for a minute, looked at the phone and dialled another number.

It rang a couple of times, before it was answered with a guarded, “Hello?”

“Michael?”

“Yes.”

“You’re alive? You’re alright?” There was a fight between disbelief and hope going on inside Danny. Things couldn’t just be ok, not after everything that had happened, everything that had felt so real. But why not? He wasn’t the first person to have delusions. The human mind was incredible, the way it could fool itself. But it was resilient too. He had seen people come back from much worse. “I mean, I’m just happy to hear from you. It’s been a long time,” Danny said, not sure what he was saying, just happy to be able to say anything to Mike again.

“Look, this is a bad time. I’m working. Is there something you want?”

“No I just…” Danny paused, thinking. He wasn’t sure what he wanted to say. He wanted to tell Mike what had been going on, but he didn’t know that himself. How long had he been out of it? How long had he been Leo? Since the operation? Was Leo even real? “It’s just, I think I haven’t been acting like myself recently. Can you tell me if I’ve done anything out of character?”

Mike was silent. “Is this some kind of joke?” he asked finally.

“No, just since the operation, you know, I haven’t been myself.”

“You can say that again.”

“Mike, what happened with the operation?”

Michael sighed. “Danny, you have all the information on the procedure. And we've been through this before.” 

Danny turned and looked at the boxes in the corner. “Please. Humour me.”

“Ok. The control chip was inserted correctly, but we had trouble waking you up. So we removed the chip. Three weeks later you came around. You didn’t appear to have any damage from the operation. Not at the time anyway. That‘s all.” Mike was abrupt, not his usual self, not a trace of the guy Danny had become friends with. It was as like was a different person. Or like Danny was a different person, someone he no longer knew.

“That’s it? Really?”

“Really.” Mike insisted.

“But you said I’d been acting strangely.”

“Your brain waves were sometimes erratic while in the coma, but they seemed fine when you were released. But since then, yeah, you've been acting strangely.”

“So I could have some kind of damage. Haven’t I been tested?”

“If you would agree to come in I could do that.”

“When can I come in?”

“Well, today,” Mike said, he sounded surprised. He paused for a moment. “This afternoon, is that ok?”

“I’ll be there.”

“Danny, what’s up with you?”

“I don’t know. I feel…” Danny thought for a minute. He wanted to explain everything, but he was wary. Acting a little different after brain surgery, that was one thing. But explaining that you hadn’t been present in your life for a significant period of time, that another personality had been living it for you, that was serious. He could end up in a mental hospital for real. At the very least he would be under observation for a long time. He wanted to get his life back on track, not miss any more of it. “I feel like I just woke up. Don’t give up on me Michael.”

“Just make sure you come in today.”

“Michael, what about my family. Do you know if they’re ok?”

“Why don’t you get in touch with them, ask them yourself? I know Abbie would appreciate it.”

“I will.” Danny was silent.

“Just come in today Danny, ok? I’ll see you later.”

“Oh, wait. Do you know the facility in Rockwell Street?” There was one other thing Danny had to ask.

“Yeah, I know it, why?”

“Does it have a club attached?”

“No… well there was the club next door. It was closed down a couple of years ago, for noise violations. Don’t you remember that? Too bad those animal rights nuts didn’t think of that. Poor little animals. Having to be subjected to their noise as well as being tortured by us-”

“Animals?”

“Yes.”

“There weren’t any people there?”

“For testing? No.”

“Oh, right.“ Danny felt relieved, but still... “Mike, do you think all the experiments we did there were, uh, necessary?”

“Necessary? It’s an experiment Danny. How are you supposed to know if it’s necessary until you do it? But it was all as humane as possible. You know that, you worked there didn’t you?”

“Oh, yeah.” Danny realised there were still a lot of gaps in his memory. Hopefully those would come back with time. “Thanks Mike. I’ll see you this afternoon, ok?”

“Ok, make sure you do.”

Danny said goodbye and hung up. His eyes were drawn once again to the brown boxes behind him. He stood up and walked over, unsteadily. A tremor travelled up his body but he ignored it. He pulled the first box open and looked at the files stacked inside. He picked one out, it had his patient number on it, 412 566. He opened it up and flicked through pages of scans of his brain. His hand lifted to his head, to feel the scar beneath his hair. The scans didn’t show the chip, these must have been taken after they removed it. What would he have been doing at this point? He looked at the date - six days after the operation. He, Leo, whoever he was, wouldn’t wake up for over two weeks yet. Placing the pages on the floor he looked back inside the box. There were hundreds of similar sized files. Leo must have been pretty interested in what was going on his brain. He supposed he should read them too, but he didn’t want to. He wanted to forget everything. He was alive now, that was what mattered. He would tell Mike all he could today, he didn’t care if he was on anti-psychotics for the rest of his life. He had been given a second chance, he wasn’t about to waste it. He would explain things to Abbie. She would forgive him. She had known the dangers of the procedure. Of course she had, she had repeatedly warned him of the dangers. He would spend the rest of his life making it up to her.

As he sat there he felt another shiver go through him. He guessed it was the open window behind him. He was suddenly aware of how cold, how weak his body felt. He couldn’t have eaten in a while, and his mouth was dry. He ran the sink in the kitchen and searched trough the cupboards until he found a mug. It looked as new and unused as everything else in the apartment. When he had drunk from it several times he checked the fridge. The food in there was rotten but he pulled a ready meal out of the freezer and stuck it in the microwave. While he waited he tried his home number again. Then he tried Abbie’s cell phone but the call cut off before it rang. Blocked? Or was her phone just off? The microwave pinged behind him. He ate quickly, standing up at the kitchen counter, not really tasting the piping hot lasagne, though he felt the heat of it travel to his stomach. He wanted to go home, get to his family, but he needed to sort himself out first. He couldn’t let them see him like this. He jumped in the shower as soon as he finished. The water running over him felt good… Did it feel different, more real? It felt, fine, no more real or less than any other shower he had ever taken.

Danny pulled a towel around himself, drying himself as he walked out of the bathroom and across the main room. He searched in the pile of clothes in the corner and pulled out one of his older shirts and jeans, ignoring the new clothes he didn’t recognise. He dressed and as he did so he saw black metal in the pile of fabric. He moved the clothes and picked up a revolver. He felt the weight of it in his hand. In real life he had only really used a gun on a shooting range. Would it feel different, pulling the trigger here, ending someone’s life as he felt he had done countless times before? Or would it be just the same, like the shower and the food? He wondered if Leo had used the gun, and buried it out of sight at the bottom of the clothes pile.

As he stood up a loud buzzing noise rang through the apartment. Danny flattened himself against the wall. Weapon in hand, he stood there waiting for whatever threat this could signal. The sound came again. Then he looked across the room to the intercom on the wall. He walked over and pressed the button.

“Hello?”

“Hello,” his wife answered.

Danny stood there for a second, unable to answer. “Abbie?”

“Yes, it’s me.” She sounded weary, resigned to being there.

“Hi, come up!” he said in what he hoped sounded like his normal voice. He buzzed her in and glanced back over the room. The bed looked the worst and he threw the covers at the end over it, covering the stains, glad he had opened the window earlier. He hurried back to the door, smoothing back his hair. He realised he was smiling like an idiot and he tried to modify his facial expression, look a little more normal. As soon as he heard footsteps outside he opened the door.

His wife and son stood there. They looked much the same as they had the last time he saw them. Danny hadn’t really thought about how he’d feel being with them again, until recently he hadn’t believed he could. He just stood there, staring at them for a moment, hardly able to believe they were really here. Then he stepped forward to embrace them. Abbie moved back out of the way. Josh stood still and let his dad hug him, but he looked terrified. Danny stood back and took a good look at them. “Come in.”

Abigail took his Josh’s hand and they walked inside.

“Where’s Kat?” Danny asked.

“She didn’t want to come today,” Abigail said. She looked at him for a second then away immediately, at Josh. “I’ll be back at two to pick you up. You can always call me if you need to.”

Josh nodded.

“Can we talk? Before you go?” Danny stepped towards his wife who stiffened and stepped away. “I love you.I’m so sorry. I’m really sorry for how I’ve acted the last few weeks. I haven’t been myself-”

“It’s the children you should be apologising too. I have to go.” Her face was expressionless. It worried him, how closed off she seemed. When they had argued before it had always been everything out in the open and over quickly. This was different.

“Wait can I just talk to you, for one minute, alone.”

“No.”

“Can I call you?”

“I’ll be back at two. We can talk then.” She looked down at Josh again. “Are you sure about this? We can go home now if you want? Do you feel ok?”

Josh nodded up at her.  Abigail said goodbye to Josh and left quickly. Danny watched her go. He wanted to run after her, but he knew he had to take things slow, he couldn’t push. If only he knew what Leo had done, then at least he would know what he was apologising for. The fact she was here at all and willing to leave Josh meant Leo hadn’t done anything too terrible, he hoped. Whatever had happened, he would make it up to her. He would make everything better.

Danny looked at Josh to see him looking back at him, his son looked away.

“So what do you want to do today? We could go to the park?”

Josh shrugged. Danny bent down next to him. “I know the last few weeks have been hard. Daddy’s been ill, but I’m getting better. Everything’s going to be better from now on.”

Josh nodded again, looking even more freaked out than before.

“Do you want to watch TV?” Danny picked up the remote from the bedside table and turned on the TV. As he did so he saw the needle from earlier lying on the floor and gave it a sharp kick under the bed. He flicked through until he found a channel with kids shows. Josh sat down on the end of the bed.

Danny walked around the apartment, looking for his keys in pockets and on top of things. He found the house keys in some discarded jeans along with some car keys he didn’t recognise. As he continued dressing a shiver ran through him. He shook it off.

“Ready to go?” he asked Josh. He could take him to the park across from the church. The kids always used to love it there. And it would be good to see the town, reinforce the fact he was home to himself.

Josh looked at him apprehensively. Danny turned the TV off and smiled at him. “Come on. We’ll have fun I promise. Like the old days.”

Josh stood up, took the hand Danny offered him and they walked out the door and downstairs onto the street. Outside Danny looked around cautiously.

“Where would he, I mean, where did I park the car?”

They walked around the back of the apartment block to a row of garages. Danny bent down in front of the first door and tried to unlock it. The key didn’t fit. He stood up and looked down the row.

“Try that one, dad,” Josh spoke up, pointing down the row.

Danny smiled at him. He walked to the indicated garage and unlocked it. There was a white Fiat in there, it looked in good condition except for a few scratch marks down one side and a damaged wing mirror. Danny tried the car key in the door. It clicked open. He turned to look at Josh. “What did we do then last time you visited me? I can’t remember.”

Josh shrugged. “Watched TV.”

“Did we go anywhere? Did we take the car? This car?”

“No. You took me home. I was being too noisy. You almost crashed. Mom was mad. She said you were drunk.”

Danny crouched down by his son. “Listen Josh. I’m sorry about that. It won’t happen again. Things are going to get better now.” He smiled reassuringly and Josh did smile back, just a little.

In the car, Danny’s hands shook on the wheel as he started the engine. He took a deep breath and backed out onto the street with no problem. They drove through town. At first Danny had no problem, the streets were familiar to him but as he drove on he realised he had no idea where he was going. He had said he would take Josh somewhere hadn’t he? He couldn’t ask him where now, he needed his son to believe in him. He tried to remember but his brain was distracted, thinking of, grasping at something else, just out of reach. He felt so cold, he needed to look down and concentrate to keep his hands from shaking on the steering wheel. He looked up just in time to see the light go red and slammed on the brakes.

The lights turned green and he accelerated off. He felt better now, as if the jolt of the car had been what he needed. The park. They were going to the park.

“Dad. Dad!”

“What?” Danny asked, distracted again, trying to keep himself from snapping at the kid.

“I want to see Kat!”

“Me too son. We’ll see her soon.”

“But she works just down there at Mr Swirly’s.” Looking back in the mirror Danny saw Josh indicate down towards the mall. “Why can’t we go and see her?  I want to see her.”

“Oh, Ok… I didn’t know she had a job,” Danny said, almost to himself, and changed direction. It only took a few minutes before they saw the large plastic rooftop ice-cream cone that indicated Mr Swirly’s. They drove into a parking lot surrounded by shops and fast food restaurants. While Danny was still parking Josh unbuckled himself and opened the door, running out between the rows of parked cars.

“Wait!” Danny shouted. He switched the engine off and chased after him. Mark ran towards the ice-cream shop. Danny saw him reach two figures outside the door. His daughter stood there, sharing a cigarette with a boy a few years older. She wore blue skinny jeans and a lacy green vest, her hair done up in some kind of fancy French knot. She looked older than the little girl he had left behind. Kat hastily handed the cigarette to her friend as she saw Danny.

He reached them, breathing heavily, Leo obviously hadn‘t been keeping his body in shape. “Never run off like that!” he said to Josh and quickly turned to Kat. “You smoke?”

“No, it’s not even mine. Anyway you started first.”

“I did?”

“Yeah.” She looked at the boy next to her and rolled her eyes. “Starting smoking when you’re middle-aged. How pathetic.” She said it quietly but still audibly. She looked back at Danny. “Anyway, what are you doing here?” She was afraid of him Danny realised, she was doing a good job covering it but the wariness was there, under the covering hostility.

Josh spoke up. “I want to go home.”

Kat glared at her father.

“Sure, I’ll take you home.” She said to Josh, without ever breaking eye contact with Danny, as though daring him to object.

“I have to talk to you.” Danny said. Josh was too young to really understand how being ill could affect someone, make them behave in ways that weren’t them. And he and Abbie’s relationship hadn’t been perfect, even before the surgery. But Kat had always been such a good kid, and smart beyond her years. He knew that if he could just explain it to her, she would understand.

“No, not interested.”

“I know things have been strange and confusing lately. But everything-”

“Just leave us alone! You’ve already ruined our lives!” She had changed in a second from standing there arms crossed to flat out screaming in his face.

“But I’m so sorry. I can-”

“I don’t care! I don’t ever want to see you again.” Kat grabbed Josh’s hand and he followed her into the store.

Danny started after them but cigarette boy stepped in front. “I think you need to leave, now.”

Danny stood and squared up to the boy, who stared back at the him, meeting his gaze. Danny wondered what this kid would do if he knew about his past, the things he had done. Would he be so brave then? He could kill him, right now, it would be easy. But no, all that was in the past. He would never do anything like that again.

He sighed, looked past the boy at the entrance to the ice-cream place. “Ok, just tell Kat to call me.“ The boy didn’t move and Danny turned and walked back to his car. He sat there, watching until he saw Josh, Kat and her friend walking across the parking lot. They were talking and laughing and seemed unconcerned about him. He watched them get into a car and drive away. He had had some vague idea about following but he realised now it would only make things worse. Best to leave it, try again later.

* * *

 

Danny unlocked his door. He walked across the room, checking the place for any changes as he went, force of habit. He collapsed back on the bed. The edge of the bed, that didn

’t have piss soaked into it. He tried to clear his head and focus, figure out what was best to do next. But all he could think about was the pounding in his head, the churning in his stomach, the constant cold shivers running through him. He felt sick, really sick. He sat up with difficulty, each of his limbs felt like it had doubled in weight and the muscles ached from supporting him. He wanted to call Abbie. And he should tell her about Kat and Josh, let her know they weren’t with him. He pulled out his phone out of his pocket and dialled.

Abigail’s hello was hesitant, he guessed she knew who it was but couldn’t ignore him while the kids were with him.

“Hi.” He tried to make it sound casual and cheerful but it came out all wrong.

“What’s wrong? Is Josh ok?”

“He’s ok. He’s fine. Well, we went to see Kat, and he decided he would rather come home with her. So I’m just calling to let you know.”

“Oh for Christ’s sake. She’s thirteen. How can you be so irresponsible?”

“I couldn’t stop him. He was scared to even be near me -” Danny’s voice broke at that.

She sighed, paused for a moment. “Well what do you expect? After the way you've treated the kids, all of us.”

“It’s all been since the operation, hasn’t it? It messed up my head. But I’m feeling like me again. I know things are going to get better. You still love me don’t you?” He was rushing to get the words out, like saying them faster would convince her.

She paused again, longer this time. When she spoke her voice was uncertain. “Yes, of course I do.”

“Then give me another chance.”

“I can’t.” There was more certainty now.

“What did I do to you?” If Danny knew he could make it up to her.

“You let me know exactly how much I meant to you.” Her voice sounded so calm it scared him, but there was pain underneath, a deep foundation.

“I didn’t hurt you did I?” He could make sure he never did it again.

“That’s not the point. There are worse things you can do.”

When she paused he jumped in, he had to convince her.

“If I could just talk to you. If we could meet, I could show you that I’m not that person anymore.

“I thought you didn’t want to talk. I thought you didn’t want to see me again.” And now the bitterness was coming to the surface, leaking out. Danny was glad to hear it, at least she still felt something for him.

“I’m so sorry. For everything. I’ve just, I’ve been acting crazy, I’ve been… but I’m going to sort it all out. Don’t worry.” He felt like if he could just find the right words she would understand, but he was reaching for them and missing, ending up with lame excuses.

“How do I know you won’t do this again?”

“It’s not me. It’s just the experiment. It messed me up. You knew there was a chance-” he needed to convince her, now.

“No, Danny.”

“Yes.” He could sound just as sure as her.

“It is you.”

“It’s not me, it’s just-”

“Everything you’ve done. It’s just been more extreme, crazy lately, but I think this is how you’ve always been deep down. This is how you used to act, every time you got drunk. It’s that thing with Judy all over again, it’s just more women this time.” She paused. “Do you remember that time in college, after I told you I was pregnant?”

“I quit drinking. I did it for you.” He felt indignant that she would bring something up from so long ago. It didn’t have a bearing on now, all this was caused by Leo, not him.

“It didn’t change the problem. Its still there Danny, all that anger. It’s just under the surface. All that hate and resentment. You have so much anger in you. It’s frightening.”

“That’s not fair. I’ve tried, I have worked so hard for this family.” That was true. If he hadn’t met her, if she hadn’t got pregnant so soon, his career could have taken off. He could have been so much more than this.

“I know you have. You never miss a chance to remind me. You resent us so much. I can see it every time you have a bad day at work. You never believe me… But it’s true. And when you lose your temper you’re like a different person Danny… I just realised…it shouldn’t be this hard.” She was crying now. Danny wanted to scream at her that this wasn’t him, that she was wrong. What she was saying had to be wrong. Because if it wasn’t everything fell apart. Because now he remembered what Leo said, that he had created him, and if what Leo said was true, well Leo hadn’t come from nowhere had he? But he could never hurt her. “I love you. That’s what matters.”

She caught her breath. “I don’t want to be with you Danny.”

“I can change.”

“I can’t let you in again, not after this. The kids will forgive you. That’s what scares me. Can you promise them you won’t do this  again?” She was calming down now, sobs trailing off and growing further apart.

Danny felt like her calm could infect him across the telephone line. He wanted to get angry, and convince her she was wrong, but it was like all the energy, every argument had been drained from him. “No, I can’t.” He sat still as though waiting for her verdict.

“There. You see.”

He put the phone down, hanging his head in his hands. He stayed like that for a few minutes until he realised that the shaking spreading through him wasn’t from emotion, something was wrong with his body. He was cold all over, and tired. He wanted to lie down but he was afraid he would never get up again if he did. He stood up and went and looked in the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, finding nothing in there he started checking through boxes, drawers, anywhere Leo might have hidden something. He told himself he was looking for some medication to help him with the side effects, but really would it be so bad if he found Leo’s stash? He just needed something to get rid of the withdrawal symptoms, to take the pain away and let him see clearly.

Eventually he gave up and sat down on the bed again. Outside the window was a bright blue day. The world that had welcomed him earlier felt a million miles away. He checked through the phone till he found a likely text and dialled the number.

* * *

 

Danny passed the park, with the kids playing and adults relaxing in the sun. This place didn’t seem so different to where he had spent the last few months anymore. Once the kid’s laughter, the families having fun together would have cheered him up, given him hope for the future as though happiness were contagious. Now it meant nothing. It didn’t matter if they were happy. It didn’t mean anything for him. It didn’t mean things were going to work out for him, or his family.

He watched the streets carefully as he neared the cemetery. Didn’t want to run into a cop right now. His career was already over, but if anyone saw him doing this… But what had they already seen him do? He had a feeling there was still more to discover about Leo’s train-wreck ride through his life. He was going to be dealing with the consequences for a long time. He slid the car into a space in front of the cemetery. There would be time to worry about that tomorrow.

He waited outside the cemetery. He could go to Michael, get tested, confess everything, he could start over again. He could go through everything, get his life back on track and there was no guarantee Abigail and the kids would accept him. And why should they after what he had done? No, what Leo had done. He had to keep them separate in his head.

Someone knocked on the car window. “Leo?”

Danny wound down the window.

“You Leo?” A skinny youth who demanded, not asked, but his eyes were wary.

“Are you Phil?”  Danny asked. Stupid question. He could tell the man who addressed him was younger than the man he had spoken to on the phone

The kid looked surprised. “No.” He walked away from the car.

Danny opened the door quickly. “Wait! I’m Leo.”

The kid looked back, cautious, but seemed to decide it was worth the risk.

“Felix. Phil’s busy so he sent me.”

Felix turned and walked into the cemetery. Danny followed along the path behind him. He glanced around him, with every step this was starting to feel like a worse idea. He was on the verge of leaving when the kid stopped and turned to him. Danny saw his hand reach into his pocket and relaxed when he saw it was just a rolled up brown bag.

“Phil said to give you this. He said you would pay for it now.” There was something in Felix’s  tone that made Danny wonder if Phil had actually said that. Danny looked at the bag. It looked fairly full. Too much for one person. He didn’t know how much that would cost but he doubted he had enough cash on him. Leo obviously wasn’t buying this just for personal use.

“You want it right?”

“I told Phil I would pay him on Thursday.” Danny had the impression that Leo and Phil had done business together before so that was probably feasible. He was on the verge of backing out now, caught between his body’s need and his better instincts, and decided he would leave it up to fate. If Felix didn’t believe him and walked away then no great loss.

“Phil’s not going to be happy,” Felix said, handing over the bag.

* * *

 

It wasn’t far back to the apartment, and it was only when he realised the drive was taking too long that Danny noticed he had taken a wrong turn. He knew these streets so well he could travel them in his sleep. He was driving towards his old home.

He turned off and ended up on the street he had briefly stayed when he was running from the project. There was a moment when he couldn’t remember if that had actually happened or not. Then he shook himself, no, this was just a street with some abandoned buildings on. He had never been inside them. But some doubt lingered, he knew this place so well. How could he feel like he knew every brick, what was behind every window if he had never spent time here?

The area looked like it was being demolished, lots of scaffolding up and buildings coming down. As he drove past one site there was a loud burst of drilling. He followed the diversions ahead, directing him around roadworks. This was taking too long, he glanced at the bag on the floor of the car next to him. The diversion was leading him back the way he came. He stopped at the wrong end of a one-way street. If he could take this it would cut out a lot of journey time. He checked it for vehicles and it seemed deserted so he headed on up. About halfway along the road a uniformed police officer stepped into the road ahead, and raised a hand to signal stop. Danny braked hard, a sinking feeling in his stomach.

The cop came to the window. “Did you know this is a one way street sir?”

Danny gave an embarrassed smile.

“No, I didn’t. I didn’t see a sign. I’m sorry. I’ll just back up.” Every part of him was saying, don’t look at the bag, but there it was, on the floor between him and the cop. His eyes were drawn to it like a magnet, but just for a second.

“Are you alright sir?” He couldn’t tell if the cop had noticed or not.

“I’m fine.” He made an effort to smile. He didn’t know why he thought smiling would help. He wanted to look relaxed and at ease but he knew it wasn’t working.

“Can you step out of the car please?”

“Is that really necessary? I’ll just back up.”

“Step out of the car please.”

Danny opened the door and stepped out, stumbling and catching himself on the hood. The cop looked inside the car, just glancing over it, one hand on the door.

“I’ll pay for the ticket,” Danny said desperately.

The cop glanced back at Danny. “Put your hands on the car.”

Danny did, watching as the cop leaned into the car, his hand reaching for the bag.

He did it without thinking, leapt forward, reached down to the officer’s belt and grabbed the nightstick. Pulled it up, striking the man in the jaw on the upswing. As the officer’s head snapped back Danny struck him again in the face. Then again as he fell to the ground and again and again until he stopped moving.

Danny pulled the still body off the road and onto the sidewalk. He jumped into the car and accelerated away. Had he really done it? Had he really killed someone this time? But he knew he couldn’t think of that now. He glanced back as he pulled out into the main road. He couldn’t see anyone, just the body halfway down the street. But he hadn’t seen the cop when he turned onto the road either.

He drove back to the apartment, parked normally, and walked up the stairs, not rushing. He didn’t meet anyone, and he was glad of it. He felt like if he did they would look straight at him and know exactly what he had done, no matter how calm he looked.

Inside he set the bag down on the kitchen countertop and turned on one of the hobs on the stove. Now he was home and safe, now was the time to try to think, to figure out what he had done, what he should do next. How he could put it right and how to sort out this whole mess. Instead he emptied some of the brown powder into a saucepan, more than he needed probably. It didn’t matter, he didn’t want to save any. Things had gone too far, there were too many obstacles to his old life. It was closed off room and now a new life stretched in front of him, one he didn’t want. If he had lost everything here, he couldn’t bring himself to start over, there was only one other option. He took the liquid off the heat and walked over to the bed, fishing the syringe from underneath it. He felt a moment of doubt as he filled the syringe. He looked at it and the ache in his body intensified, making his choice for him. He stumbled back and sat down, back against the bed and shot the liquid deep into his vein.


	11. Chapter 11

Something was pressing down on his body, heavy and thick, pushing in from all sides. He struggled to move. The realisation that he couldn’t forced him to lay still, keep calm and try to figure out where the hell he was. Danny opened his eyes a crack and something fell into them, grainy and sharp, that he couldn’t blink away. He tried to move his head and the soft substance covering him seemed to move with him, fitting itself to his body. Panicking, he opened his mouth and tasted earth as it filled. He focused on trying to lift one hand. The weight above it gave with a shock of movement and he reached up into empty space. He scrabbled at the ground, gripping and pulling himself up, head, shoulders, his other arm, out of the ground and into the clear air. He gasped, filling his lungs.

Standing slowly, he rubbed the dirt from his eyes and spat it onto the tilled ground. Looking around him, he recognised the graveyard. Recognised the grave too, his wife’s name carved in stone and the angel that stood guard above it. The densely packed clay that should cover the grave was scattered around it, wood showed through beneath the little that remained. He knelt down by the grave and carefully smoothed the earth back down on top. Then he stood, took a last look, and turned and walked towards the bright lights of the city.

* * *

 

The night fell and streets lit up as he moved through them. The pain and muscle aches of the last day were gone. For a long time Danny’s life had been full of nothing but confusion and doubt. Now he was so sure of himself; his world had narrowed down to one aim, and he was certain he could fulfil it. Lights were brighter, everything was clear now. He felt like he could see through the buildings, there was a path straight ahead. He walked through the city purposefully, knowing exactly where he was going. He only slowed down as he reached the hotel.

The neon sign above the entrance was gone, but the shadow of the letters was still there, paint around them bleached by the sun, ‘Bee’s Honey Pot’. Two men stood guard outside. They had no masks and their suits were not the usual style, but Danny could recognise Watchdogs anywhere. It was the way they stood, the way they looked at him. If they thought he was prey they were mistaken. “I want to see Leo.”

The Watchdogs exchanged a glance, then looked back at Danny. “Kaspar?”

Danny nodded slightly. One of the Watchdogs spoke a few words into a walkie-talkie and went inside. The other moved in front of the entrance, watching Danny intently. Danny gazed past him into the lobby. He recognised this place. His mind flashed back to an image of the desk, the hotel receptionist walking away. But that didn’t interest him now. He waited impatiently for the Watchdog to return, every second ticking dragged out ahead of him.

When the Watchdog did come back he moved over to Danny and quickly patted him down. “Go inside. There will be someone waiting for you.”

Danny walked into the lobby. The place had changed. The lighting was brighter, less red, and the nudes had been taken down and replaced with modern art. There were two men there already, heading down the stairs towards him. One in a shirt and trousers, the other in a Hoodie and jeans, carrying an AK47.

“You! You wanted to see Kaspar?” the man in the shirt called out.

“Yes.” Danny walked over to them. The hotel’s décor might have changed but it still had the same threatening atmosphere. Something was wrong here, a warning siren stared up in the back of his mind. He ignored it. Nothing was going to get in his way. He was finally going to do what he had put off so long. No going back.

“Follow me.” Danny followed the two men up the stairs and into a long hallway with doors along the side. Shirt man stopped outside one, smiling. Hoodie man opened it up and Danny stepped inside.

He remembered this as a fairly typical hotel room. Now it was bare, carpet torn up, furniture and wallpaper removed, the windows boarded up. Electrical wires trailed from a small device on a stool to the main fixture of the room, a heavy wooden chair fitted with restraints, which Leo sat in. Strapped down, electrodes trailed under the dirty white t-shirt and jeans. He looked terrible, bags under his closed eyes and he had lost weight, muscle and fat stripped away.

Leo looked up, looked surprised to see Danny, and then smiled. “Back so soon?”

Danny hadn’t thought about exactly what he was going to do when he got here, but now it seemed so obvious. He stepped forward and punched Leo hard in the face, once, then again, and again until he felt something smash into his own face. Head reeling, he didn’t resist as the two men dragged him out of the room.

Outside Hoodie man slammed him into the wall. Danny stood there. While Hoodie man held him there, Shirt man had taken a step back and appeared to be listening to something. Danny noticed for the first time the earpiece in his ear. He looked back at them. “Right, we need to take him to the boss.”

Hoodie man grabbed Danny’s arm and pushed him in front and Shirt man started down the corridor. Taking a regretful look back at the door, Danny followed. He had to go along with this, for now. He glared at Hoodie man, with enough aggression to make him back off a little, but there was no point trying to fight them. Danny knew he would get another chance. It was just irritating, an interruption at the worst time. He hadn’t even got to the point where hitting Leo stopped being an automatic response and became satisfying.

They reached the end of the hallway and headed up some stairs. Danny barely noticed the corridors they passed through. His mind was still back there in that room, with Leo.

Shirt man stopped and knocked on a door.

“Enter.”

They trailed in and the two men stood aside. There was someone in a chair behind a desk but Danny’s gaze was immediately drawn to the wall full of screens behind him. His gaze travelled over cells, empty and full, until he found the one that showed Leo.

“I take it you’re not a friend of Leo Kasper’s.”

Danny realised the room was silent, and the man was sitting there, waiting for a response. He took a good look at him for the first time. An overweight, balding man with a beard. No one he recognised. Who was this guy? He didn’t look like part of the project, but who else in the city had this kind of power? Danny felt a growing uncertainty. He had suddenly come back to earth, and was on unsteady ground again. He figured he had better say something. “No, I’m not.”

“What’s your name?”

“Daniel... Smith.”

“Really. My name is Starkweather. I run a media business. Valiant Entertainment. You may have heard of it?” He paused and looked at Danny, who said nothing, since he hadn’t. “I’ve had my own issues with Mr Kasper, so I do understand your urgency to see him. However, very few people see the inside of my offices, Mr Smith. That pleasure is usually reserved for employees and the extremely unlucky.” He paused again looking at Danny, who again figured it was better to say nothing. Starkweather sighed. “I enjoy giving people what they want Mr Smith, and I would like to see you spend some more time with Mr Kaspar. Maybe if that turns out to my satisfaction I could offer you some more opportunities. What do you say?”

“Ok.” A few minutes ago he had felt so certain of himself. But now this world had thrown up a new threat, something he hadn’t expected. He knew he would have to tread carefully.

“Then it's settled. My boys will take you down to him now.”

Danny turned to leave.

“Just one thing Mr Smith. Don’t kill him yet. I haven’t finished with him. And don’t let me down.”

Danny followed the men until they filed through the door into the torture room. Leo didn

’t move, eyes closed, head down, though the rise and fall of his chest showed he was still breathing. Without hesitation Danny walked over to the electric board and flipped a switch. The current ran through Leo for several seconds, Danny watched him stiffen, muscles contracting, and relaxing at speed. Hoodie man stepped forward and Danny flicked the switch back and walked over to Leo.

Leo looked up. “I knew you couldn’t stay away.” He tried to smile.

“Why did you do it? Why did you have to fuck up everything?”

Leo opened his mouth to respond but Danny had already walked away, back to the switchboard, where he sent another series of shocks through Leo, four or five, in quick succession. When Danny stopped he just stood there for a moment, before walking back to Leo. Leo’s breath was quick and harsh and he took longer to look up this time.

“I knew I would bring out this side of you, sooner or later.”

“It’s good to see you destroyed your life here as well as mine. At least that’s something.”

“These things just happen to me. I guess I’m just unlucky.”

Danny shocked him again, watching him twitch until Hoodie man stepped forward and raised a hand to stop him. Danny wandered over and waited while Leo recovered.

“So what are you doing here? Things not working out so well at home?”

“No, they’re not. I guess you got your revenge.”

“You still think it was about revenge?”

Danny turned, walking back to the controls.

“How long have you been here Leo? Think you're ever going to leave?”

“I don’t know. I’ve got all the time-”

Danny cut off Leo, shocking him again. He left the electricity flowing a good few seconds, and again the hooded man stepped forward and said something Danny couldn’t hear over the crackle of electricity. Danny cut the current. Hoodie man checked Leo, who was still, but apparently still breathing, since Hoodie man gave a thumbs up to Danny and moved away.

Danny looked at Leo, who was slowly struggling to sit up. He turned towards Hoodie man and took a step forward.

“Do you think this is enough? Do you think I’m mixing things up enough? Is your boss going to be happy with it?”

“Probably not,” Shirt man said, over by the door.

As Hoodie man smiled Danny lunged forward, wrenched the gun from his hands, flipped it round and smashed the butt upwards into his nose. The man stumbled back and Danny let off several rounds behind him into Shirt man, before he could pull out a weapon. Hoodie man steadied himself and reached out for the rifle. Danny shot him once in the forehead.

Danny stepped back and gave the dead men a fleeting glance. No going back. He walked over to the chair and untied Leo. The look Leo gave him was somewhere between approval and suspicion, before his gaze flashed to the door, already thinking out an escape route. As Danny finished untying him Leo pushed himself up off the chair and ripped off the wires. He stumbled over to Shirt man and picked up his gun while Danny went over to the doorway.

The way looked clear and Danny ran out into the hall, Leo followed. Danny headed towards the stairway, only to almost run into a burst of gunfire, bullets slamming into the wall just in front of him. There was a Watchdog heading up the stairs towards him.

Leo ran past, vaulting over the handrail and shooting the Watchdog twice in the chest before disappearing down the stairs.

Danny half-turned, hearing a gunshot behind him. A figure stood in the doorway at the end of the corridor. Danny dove around the corner, getting a bit of cover behind the locker room wall. He saw the man emerge from the hallway and fired his way, saw him fall. In the ringing silence after the shots faded he heard running feet from the same direction.

Danny jumped up and ran down the stairs. He saw Leo in the lobby, heading back towards him and grabbed his arm, pulling him towards the front doors.

They ran into the street, gunfire behind them. There were a row of cars parked across from the hotel and they ducked behind one.

“Can you wire a car?”

“Of course I can.” Leo sounded insulted, as though Danny had asked him if he could read. He smashed the window with an elbow and opened the door. Crouched low on the floor, he reached in and pulled out the wiring.

Danny moved to the trunk and fired at the hotel door where a couple of Watchdogs had taken cover, holding their attention. He heard the engine crackle into life and sprinted to the car, diving over Leo into the passenger seat as they accelerated away.


	12. Chapter 12

 

They lost the tail fairly easily in the city. Danny realised Leo knew the mess of streets, shortcuts and alleyways as well as him, maybe better. Twice they heard cars speed past, ahead or behind, just missing them, but still missing them. By the time they reached the outskirts of town Danny was sure they weren’t being followed. Still neither of them spoke until they hit the freeway. As every curve of the road carried them further away from their pursuers Leo asked, “So, where are we heading?”   
“Just keep going east.” Danny watched out the window as Leo drove, trying to maintain the silence. It wasn’t until he saw the sign for the motel that he realised he had been looking for anything in particular. “Take the next exit. There’s a place we... we can stay.”

* * *

 

“Nice place,” Leo said, looking round. For once there was no sarcasm in his voice. The motel looked newly built, there was no rust on the railings, no dents on the doors, no oil staining the tarmac. Leo slammed the car door, leaving the now out of ammo automatic on the front seat. “Should we check in?” The hotel reception room looked empty. In fact there was no sign of anyone else here at all. Their’s was the only car in the parking lot.

Danny ignored him, walking over to one of the rooms on the first floor. Leo followed him inside. While Danny sat down on the freshly made bed and stared into the middle distance, Leo had a look around the room. One main room and a little corridor leading to the bathroom. From the well-stocked mini bar to the suspiciously clean bathroom it was obvious this was a high quality motel. 

Danny didn’t look up until he heard Leo lock the front door. He watched Leo move over to the window and glance out. When Leo returned to the fridge and started to search through it, Danny took his place at the window.

“We can’t stay long. They’ll come looking for us.” Leo picked up a bottle of water and a beer. He sat down on the bed and opened them both.

“No, this place is safe. We can stay here.”

“Oh, right, of course.” There was a mocking edge in Leo’s voice. He took a long drink of water. Danny looked back at him and then back out the window. There was no-one out there, nothing to see.

Leo switched to the beer, taking an equally long drink, and then asked, “Why did you help me?”

“I don’t know.”

“Not a clue?”

“You didn’t deserve it.”

“I know.”

“Maybe it was Starkweather. I don’t like the guy.” That was true, Danny thought, though not the entirety of it. He wasn’t even sure why he had helped Leo himself really. He sat down at the end of the bed, about as far away from Leo as he could physically get while sitting on the same mattress as him.

“Yeah, neither do I.”

“What did you do to piss him off so much?”

“Fuck knows. Nothing really. He just arrived in town one day and decided he didn’t like me.”

Danny didn’t believe that for a second. “And the Watchdogs went with him?”

“Yeah, bastards, thought dogs were supposed to be loyal…”

Leo trailed off and Danny looked back at him. He looked in pretty bad shape. There were the burn marks from the electrodes, as well as the wound on his side. Danny hadn’t noticed it until now, but all that blood had to be coming from somewhere. “You’re bleeding.”

Leo pulled off his t-shirt and examined the cut on his side. A long and deep graze, slightly oozing. Danny tried to remember if he had done that himself, but was pretty sure he hadn’t. Must have been in the gunfight, a bullet which didn’t quite miss.

“It's nothing.”

Now that Danny was looking at Leo he could see the older scars on him, underneath a top layer of grime.

“You look terrible. You should take a shower.”

“Yeah, alright.” Leo stood up.

“I think there’s a first aid box in there.”

Leo started to walk towards the bathroom, he stopped and glanced back at Danny. “By the way, why are you covered in dirt?”

That brought back bad memories. “None of your fucking business.”

“Ok, sorry.”

Danny watched him, surprised, as he disappeared into the bathroom. He listened to the sound of the shower.

He had turned on the TV in the corner and was watching the news by the time he heard Leo come out. He kept his eyes on the TV until he heard Leo stumble and looked around sharply. Leo, towel around waist, wet hair, was pulling himself up on the bed. Danny stood up and went to help him.

“I’m fine.”

Danny put his arm around Leo’s shoulders and half helped, half lifted him onto the bed. “You don’t look fine.”

Leo lay back on the bed and Danny sat back down at the end. There was silence for a minute. Leo glared at the back of Danny’s head. “I bet you're fucking happy seeing me like this.”

“I don’t enjoy seeing you hurt Leo. I’m not like you.”

“All I ever tried to do is help you Danny. I helped you with the project, I helped you break out, and I _tried_ to help you fight. What do I get for it?  What have you ever done for me?”

Danny just turned and looked at Leo with a ‘what the fuck’ expression.

“Alright there was just now, but apart from that you treat me like shit.”

Danny decided he had to say this slowly and clearly, so it got through.

“Leo, you've ruined my life-”

“No,” Leo interrupted.

“-what do you expect?”

“No.” Leo’s voice was at the very edge of calm. He was pushing for an argument and Danny didn’t understand why. Was this some plan? Or just to get at him? Leo had no right to be angry at him. “You ruined my life. You created me, you put me here. You made me this. You destroyed me before I began. I never had a fucking chance with you.”

Danny took a deep breath and forced himself to speak slowly. “Don’t act like I’ve stopped you doing anything. You came back to this place. You had a chance to live a normal life and you fucked it up.”

Leo sat forward. “So why are you here then? If you’re such a wonderful person, why did you choose to come back? You don’t want to admit it. The truth is you're the same as-”

Leo was cut off by Danny, who lunged at him, grabbing his throat and crushing it, body pressing down onto his chest.

“You didn’t have to lie to me, you didn’t have to kill my wife, and you didn’t have to make me kill over and over again!”

Leo gasped for breath and grabbed Danny’s hands, but made no attempt to push him off.

“You didn’t have to fuck up my life! You did that. Not me.”

Danny pushed Leo away, standing and moving across the room. Looking for something to break he threw the remote at the TV. It bounced off and the screen didn’t even flicker. He sat back down at the end of the bed, breathing heavily.

“I didn’t mean to fuck up your life,” Leo said after a minute.

“Oh right, it was just an accident.”

“Honestly, I thought it would be easy to be you, look after a few kids, fuck your wife, and live a normal life. It was harder than I thought. But I did try.”

“You’re selling drugs, my kids are terrified of you. What exactly did you try?”

“You’re right, I fucked up, and I admit it. At first it was alright, I could fake it, but I couldn’t keep it up. I don’t know how you did it.” The tone of Leo’s voice was half complimentary, half suggesting he didn’t know why anyone would bother.

“Before you came along, I did fine.”

“Well, I had my chance and I blew it. So there it is. You’re right. I fucked it up. But what about you? Why are you back here?”

“I came back here to kill you.”

“Then why haven’t you? And why are you still here?”

“You ruined everything.”

“You could have fixed it.”

“I couldn’t fix it.”

“Why-”

“Just stop talking now Leo or I really am going to kill you.”

Leo lay back on the bed. Danny retrieved the remote and sat on the end of the bed, flicking through channels. He settled on a cooking show and stared at it, not watching. Alone in a hotel room with his worst enemy, his whole life behind him. What the hell was he supposed to do now?

“Danny?”

“What?”

“Why is there only one bed? Are we going to be bunking together?”

Danny looked back at the bed. It hadn’t occurred to him before, but there was definitely only one bed.

“Are you trying to hint at something?”

“Fuck off Leo.”

Danny watched the TV and ignored Leo, who quickly gave up trying to talk to him. It grew dark outside and he heard Leo’s breathing grow heavy and rhythmic behind him. He switched off the TV and sat there for a moment, staring at the blank screen. Then he turned, moving up the bed and sliding under the covers. He lay there feeling the cool of the bed sheets. Turned on his side to face the outline of Leo, breathing softly in the dark. He knew he was awake. Knew he was watching. Part of him figured he wanted something from Leo. And he deserved it. After all the man had put him through. But now he was here he was paralysed, he didn’t know how to begin. Leo moved first. Danny watched him inch closer, until he could feel the other man’s breath on his face. He put out a hand, touched tentatively under the covers the first part of Leo he could find. That was all it took. Leo was up against him, kissing him. Danny pushed him back but not away, sat up, leaning over him, deepening the kiss. He was in control tonight. Leo was in no state to fight him. Leo kissed back more gently, allowing Danny access to his mouth. Danny ran his hand up Leo’s side, feeling the line of muscles, up to his chest, his collarbone and then down again, feeling every scar, every raised line till he reached his hip. Leo’s hands were on him, stroking every part of him, slowly, more softly than Danny would have believed him capable off.

Danny pushed down on Leo’s hip, shoving him onto his back and sliding a leg over and sitting up, astride him. He shifted forward onto Leo’s stomach, reached a hand back to give one hard stroke to the cock behind him. Leo gasped and Danny felt hands reaching for his own erection. He grabbed Leo’s wrists and pushed him back so his hands were trapped either side of his head. Danny leaned forward and looked down at Leo, who lay still, breath coming fast. Danny could barely see his features in the dark, but he recognised he was waiting for him to move. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill you now.”

Leo was silent for a moment. “Why?” He sounded genuinely surprised.

Danny figured he was ruining the moment, but maybe this was a moment that needed to be ruined. “I could have killed you, before you know that. I could now.” He meant it to come out threatening, but he knew it sounded much more desperate. He needed a reason for why Leo was still here. Because right now he didn’t have one. An explanation, for why after all Leo had done he hadn’t killed him.

“Oh I get it, you want me to beg?” Leo almost laughed. Danny tightened his grip on his wrists. “Ok. Please don’t kill me Danny. I’ll do anything you want.” 

Danny wasn’t impressed, Leo didn’t sound like he was taking this too seriously. He let go of one of Leo’s wrists and grabbed his throat, pulled him up to face him.

Leo did manage to choke out a laugh then. “Oh come on Danny. We both know you could have killed me anytime. But if you were going to you would have done it by now. What do you really want from me?”

Danny let go of Leo with a shove. He spun him around to face away from him and spat in his hand. Leo seemed to get the idea, raising himself up onto his knees, hands gripping onto the headboard for support. Danny coated his hard cock with spit, taking a minute to enjoy it. He moved his hand to Leo’s ass but stopped, resting it on his buttock for just a minute. “I won’t hurt you,” he said. It felt like it was more for his own re-assurance than Leo’s. That he was still in the right, the good one here.

“Get on with it,” Leo said quietly. Danny moved closer and forced himself in. Leo made a small noise, a mumble of pain. Danny paused for a second, before thrusting forward again, probably a little too quickly, but hey this was for him, he was going to enjoy this. He wrapped an arm around Leo, who was stroking his own cock, quick hard strokes. He forced his way in to the hilt, heat and tight grip around him. Then pulled out and then back in. Leo shifted forward a little, trying to support himself and hold himself back with just one hand. Danny reached his hand around, pushing Leo’s away, grasping the other man’s cock. He stroked it in time with his thrusts, till Leo was pushing back against him. When he came it was sudden and explosive. And muted, he realised immediately how exhausted he was, mind and body. He fell back onto the mattress.

Leo put an arm around him. Danny pushed him away and felt Leo turn over, facing away from him. Danny was about to turn away himself when Leo reached back and grabbed his hand, interlacing their fingers. Too tired to fight, Danny inched closer till their bodies touched and held Leo from behind. He had to admit, it felt nicer then it should. It had been a long time since he had been close to anyone. And in the dark it was easier not to think about why that was.

They were silent for a little while, recovering, and Danny was almost asleep when Leo spoke. “So what does you saving me mean? You don’t hate me as much as you thought?”

“Don’t read too much into it…” He wasn’t going to get into this now. “I don’t hate you Leo. Go to sleep.”

He felt comfortable and warm and sleep washed over him quickly. As it did he heard Leo ask,

“Don’t leave while I’m sleeping, ok?” in a voice which had to be more casual than he felt to ask that.

“I won’t,” Danny mumbled, knowing that would be the best thing, to leave. But he knew he wouldn’t have, even if nothing had been said. Then he was asleep, and didn’t worry about it anymore.


	13. Chapter 13

Danny woke up feeling refreshed and full of energy, for the first time in a long time. He rolled onto his side to look at the shape under the covers, the dark hair at the top.

Climbing out of bed quietly, he moved to the end to pull his clothes on. Glancing back at Leo, he could hear his breathing, soft and regular. Curious he moved closer. Leo's face was peaceful as he slept, almost unlined, almost innocent. He looked healthy. The bruises had disappeared from his face. Danny had an urge to touch him, stroke his hair, kiss him, pat his shoulder, anything. Just now, when he was like this. Before he woke up and ruined it all.

Danny pulled away. How had this happened? How had his life turned into this so quickly? And why didn't he feel worse about it. He was surviving, he reassured himself. Making the best of things. He must be a pro at that by now. Think just five minutes ahead, he reasoned. And in five minutes he would like to have a full stomach to make a decision on. He checked his wallet and headed out the door, closing it softly behind him.

The motel was empty, only one car parked. There had to be a store around here or a gas station or something. He supposed he was in control of that. He had to admit, it was a nice day. As he walked out of the lot birds were singing, the sun was shining, cliché but pleasant. It was peaceful here, even with the roar of the highway in the distance. As he walked along the grass verge he half-expected to see a deer leap out at him from the woods that bordered the road. And there was the gas station just ahead.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Danny walked back in the room he saw Leo crouching next to the bed, reaching underneath. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing."

"Looking for something?" He put the carrier bags down and slipped the gun from his waistband. Leo stood up straight. He was naked and Danny could see how much he had healed overnight.

"I don't need a weapon. I could have killed you whenever I wanted, while you were sleeping." Leo walked over to the fridge and looked through it, ignoring the bags of shopping by the door. Danny placed the gun on the bedside table, sitting down next to it. He wondered if Leo would make a grab for it or not. He laid back on the bed. "Why did you let me do that to you last night?"

"Do what?"

"Fuck you."

"Oh that. Just felt like it I guess. You had a good time didn't you?" Leo came over to the bed with a drink and a packet of nuts and laid down next to him.

Danny shifted away a little. "I would have thought you'd like to be on top." He figured it probably wasn't a good idea to talk about sex right now but he couldn't seem to stop himself.

"It's good to try new things. Don't get used to it-"

"Don't worry, I won't. I'm leaving today."

"Where are you going to go? I know you can't go back. You wouldn't be here if you could." Leo's voice didn't sound worried exactly, but he didn't sound as completely sure of himself as he had a minute ago.

"Anywhere."

"You know I need you Danny. I'm not just going to let you go."

"You can't stop me. And you don't need me to protect you from Starkweather, you can-"

"Not that you moron. I told you before. My life turns to shit without you around. That's why I need you to stay."

"Well my life is going to be a hell of a lot better without you around." Danny stood up, conversation over. Leo immediately followed suit. They stood on either side of the bed, staring each other down. Danny waited for Leo to make the first move.

A knock on the door broke the tension. Leo went over to the window and moved the curtains aside just enough to see through. Danny picked up the gun and followed him. Leo moved aside and Danny looked out to see two Watchdogs. He motioned to Leo to stand back. Leo looked unconvinced but did move back towards the bed. Danny opened the door. For a moment he and the Watchdogs looked at each other. Then one reached out a hand, giving Danny a VHS tape. "From Mr Starkweather."

The Watchdogs left, strolling away across the tarmac, while Danny looked down at the tape. He closed the door and carried it over to the TV as Leo moved to the window. Danny turned the tape over in his hands. It was unmarked, nothing to suggest what it might contain. He sat down on the edge of the bed, running through possibilities in his mind, trying to figure out what Starkweather might attempt. Outside, he heard an engine start up and a car roll away.

"Are you going to watch it or just stare at it?" Leo stood halfway between the window and the bed.

"Don't know."

"Either it's a threat, in which case we don't need to watch it, I know exactly what we're dealing with here. Or they're offering you something."

"There's nothing on there that could change my plans." Danny was only half listening to Leo. His mind was on the tape, he didn't know why but he was sure there was something on it he needed to see. But he couldn't think what, he had already lost everything he cared about.

"What if they offer to let you go in exchange for me? Would you turn me in?"

"Why? They've got nothing I want. Besides, I didn't save you just to take you back."

"Then why did you?"

"I told you, Starkweather."

"Bullshit."

"I don't know." Danny paused. He figured since he probably wouldn't be seeing Leo after today he could at least be honest with him. "I felt sorry for you." That was as honest as he was willing to get right now.

"You didn't seem to have any problem torturing me."

"Well, you deserved it... but, you looked so pathetic. And you had been there a long time, they weren't going to ever let you go. I don't think anyone deserves that, not even you."

Leo sat down next to him. "In some ways, you and I are very different people."

"So you would have just left me there to rot?"

"Of course not. I'm the only one who gets to hurt you. I'll kill anyone who touches you, you know that."

After a slightly uncomfortable silence Danny stood up. "Well, I'm going to watch the video."

Leo jumped up too. "Well I'm not. I'm going to take a shower. If it's some mind control thing I'll shoot you, right?"

Danny switched on the TV and inserted the cassette, while Leo headed off to the bathroom. It took him a while to find the right channel for the VCR, and then he pressed play. The tape opened on two people, a woman with long brown hair in her early twenties, and a similar looking blond boy in his late teens. They were tied to chairs in the middle of a bare concrete room. Starkweather spoke over the footage. "Good morning Dr Lamb, and Mr Kasper too, if he's still with us. Since we last met I've been doing a little research on you Daniel. And look what I dug up." The camera zoomed in on the faces of the pair, first one then the other. Danny gripped the bedcovers hard, nails digging through them into skin.

"They claim not to remember you Daniel. Have you forgotten them? Only time will tell. If you want to see them again be at the old TV-MVK studios at ten tonight. I do hope I'll see you there."

On screen someone stepped into the edge of view and the two people looked to the side, afraid. The tape cut out. By the time Leo came back in Danny was sitting close to the TV, rewinding the tape over and over and playing it back, examining it. Leo sat behind him and watched.

"What do you want to do?"

Danny waited for the video to end again before he answered. "I'll meet him of course."

"You know they're not your real kids."

"I saved you, do you think I'm going to leave them? I'm not going to let Starkweather hurt them."

"We'll be walking into a trap. We'll need weapons."

"No 'we' wont. I'm not letting you anywhere near my kids."

"You won't get far on your own. I've seen you fight."

"After what you did to them? You're not going near them."

"I didn't kill them. Who do you trust with them more, me or Starkweather?"

Danny said nothing. He turned the tape off and sat back on the bed, some distance from Leo.

"You'll have a better chance of getting your kids back with me. I'm offering to help you. You'd be a fool not to let me."

Danny was silent a minute before he answered. "Fine. But if you so much as look at them the wrong way."

"Yeah, you'll kill me. I know. Let's go get some firepower."


	14. Chapter 14

Danny closed the car door behind him carefully, making sure it didn't slam. No-one was going to hear them out here anyway, but better to be sure. Leo stood a few feet away. His backpack was slung over one shoulder and he held a map and compass, examining them closely.

Danny joined him, glancing back at the car. It was covered by the trees and tall grass, so once you were just a few steps away it was almost impossible to see. In the distance he could still hear the buzz of cars from the highway. They had only come a little way off-road, zigzagging through the trees. He would have liked to go further, but Leo said he was worrying about nothing.

"We head this way." Leo pointed and started off through the trees. Danny followed. He watched their surroundings change, trying to keep track of where they were, where they were heading and where they had come from. He had done a course in orienteering once at summer camp. Leo's knowledge blew that out of the water. Danny shifted the backpack across his back. It contained everything they could need, guns, knives, medical supplies, and more guns.

They walked in silence through the trees. It was still early, just past mid-day. It would take them a few hours to get to the compound, and then they would have several more to scope it out. Danny barely noticed the woods they walked through. The scenery was beautiful. He didn't care. His mind was ahead of them, in some dingy concrete-floored room with his children.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They emerged from the trees, open land stretching out ahead of them, scattered with fields, small roads and the occasional farmhouse.

"Better keep a low profile." Leo led them off the dirt track linking the houses and across the side of a field. They travelled through several fields until they came to a small grassy valley with a river flowing down the centre, flanked on both sides by steep hills covered with trees.

"That's the back of the studio ahead of us," Leo said.

Danny looked up. At the top of the hill ahead he could see a wooden fence and brown roofed buildings.

"Better get into the trees."

Danny led the way this time, through the trees and up the incline, until Leo shot out a hand and grabbed his arm, pulling him back. "We need to take it slow. Don't know who might be watching." They crept on, through the over-grown underbrush. Slow and silent, until a fence reared up in front of them. Leo stopped but Danny kept going, getting onto his hands and knees in the undergrowth, crawling forward to the wire fence. He could hear a sort of chugging noise. As he looked through the fence he saw a wind turbine on the thin strip of land ahead of him. It was balanced on a rocky outcrop, on either side the ground fell away down sheer limestone cliffs. Directly ahead the strip of land sloped down to an area scattered with wooden buildings. In the distance he could see a larger, more modern building. That must be where they were to meet with Starkweather. His kids could be there, right now. Danny tore himself away, the meet-up wasn't for hours, it would be a bad idea to rush in when he wasn't even sure if his children were there. He crept back to where Leo was sitting.

"That it?"

"Yeah." Danny nodded.

Leo had his bag open in front of him. Danny pulled his own off and set it down. "Are we waiting here?"

"That's right." Leo pulled something out of his bag. A brown jar filled with what looked like dust. He opened it, took a sniff. Then he stood up and walked carefully a little way from where Danny sat. He began to walk in a circle round him, scattering the dust.

"What's that for?" Danny asked.

Leo came back to him. "It covers our scent. In case they have dogs." He handed it to Danny, who smelt it and gave it back. "Try not to flatten the grass around us. That'll give us some cover too." He wrapped the jar in some cloth and put it back in his bag.

Danny lay back, head on his rucksack. The grass rose high above him. The trees were close here, bathing the area in shade. Unless their enemies were right on top of them they would be invisible. "So now we just wait?"

"Yeah." Leo sat down. He removed the guns from his backpack and set them out lovingly at his side. He picked up the pistol and opened it up, examining it and snapping it shut. "A Ruger p95. The first time I held one of these I was thirteen. We all went round to this kid's uncle's house. He let us all take pictures holding it. Don't know why he even had one. Just dealt fucking weed. Wouldn't have let me hold it a year later."

He aimed the gun in front of him, then put it down, only to pick up the long rifle next to him.

"And this, this is…"

Danny zoned out, looking up at the sky, the trees above. How long would they have to wait here? Three, four hours? Till dark. Those hours stretched between him and the kids.

"Am I boring you?" Leo's voice brought him back to the present.

"Sorry?"

"You are allowed to speak you know. If you have anything to contribute."

"My mind's on other things." Of course he wasn't going to be the best audience right now.

"You've hardly said anything since we left the car." Leo turned over to face Danny. "We've got some time, might as well make the best of it. Bet I can think of something to do." He reached out a hand, grabbing Danny's arm and attempting to pull him closer.

Danny pulled back. "What are you doing?"

"Want to fuck?"

"No!" Danny pushed his hand away.

"Why? You still don't trust me? Come on what agenda do you think I have here? What am I getting out of this?" Leo looked at him, amused.

"It's nothing to do with you, you moron. My children are in there. The last thing I want to do is fuck you." Danny rolled onto his side.

Leo seemed to stop and think about that. "Ok. Why don't you get some rest? You're going to need it once we get in there."

Danny looked back at Leo, who was now lying on his back, staring up at the sky. He had expected him to be pissed off or persistent, anything besides understanding.

Danny adjusted the bag beneath his head, tried to get comfortable. He closed his eyes and tried to think of anything but his kids. So he thought of Leo. He wasn't sure how he felt about him yet, the man had both helped and hurt him. It was pointless to pretend he didn't care about Leo, but there was still a part of him that hated him. Things had changed so quickly between them. It was going to take some time to figure it out.

Danny woke to something hitting his leg. He sat up quickly. Leo was crouched low, walking away through the grass. "What's going on?"

"Nothing. I just need to take a piss. Go back to sleep."

Danny looked at his watch. It was almost five. Three hours to meet-up time. He felt nauseous. He reached into his bag, pulled a stack of energy bars out and forced one down. Leo came back, settled down next to him and took a bar.

"Did you look?"

"Yeah. No sign of movement. But they're there. I can tell."

"When do we go in?"

"Not yet. We don't know where they're keeping the kids. Don't want to go running in before they get them here."

They were silent for a moment, the only sound them chewing on cereal bars and the constant buzzing of every insect in the area.

"So, what do you think they're doing now?" Danny said, too casually. "You should know."

"They can't do much to the kids. They need them as a bargaining chip" Leo looked at Danny, and his face must have looked doubtful. "Probably nothing. They just wanted to put that suggestion in your head, distract you, make you weak. But you need to focus. Just think one minute ahead of you. You need to be strong now, for the kids, and to get through this."

Danny took a drink of some energy cola. Leo was right. He needed to focus. "Why don't you sleep for a while? I'm not tired."

"You sure?"

"Yeah," Danny said, a little irritation creeping into his voice. He was capable. It wasn't the first time he had done this kind of thing. Leo should know that.

"Ok." Leo lay down next to him. He closed his eyes and his breathing slowed almost immediately. Beside him Danny waited, staring up at empty chinks of blue sky above the weeds.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Danny stuck out an arm and shook Leo's shoulder. "Leo, wake up. It's one hour till the meet-up."

Leo was awake almost immediately, sitting up, packing things into his bag. "There's a way to go. Might as well head out now."

They crept forward towards the fence. Danny took the lead a little. He felt excitement, fear, clenching in his stomach. Leo pulled out the clippers when they reached the wire. He slowly and methodically cut a hole in the metal. Beyond the fence it was silent, there was no sign of life. It was unlikely, but Danny couldn't help but hope it would be like this all the way. Leo pulled the sheeting back and went through first. Danny followed, crouching low as they ran under the crunching turbine and across the wooden planks which connected the land to the hay barn. This was where they had run into Whyte. He wondered if Leo remembered this place, one of the last they had been together. Danny looked around at the dust covering the floor, the spider webs flopping from the ceiling. The barn looked like it hadn't been touched since he had last been here. He moved to the edge of the floor and looked down into the yard. They had removed the bodies at least. Did Starkweather own this place now? Leo had said he made some kind of movies.

"Danny!" Leo hissed, calling him back from the edge. They headed around hay bales and down the covered ramp. At the end Leo stopped and Danny behind him, staring forward into the dusk. "It's deserted," Leo said, looking a little disappointed.

"Maybe they weren't expecting us."

"Of course they were expecting us. They've under-estimated us, the stupid fucks." Leo moved forward, gun held across his chest. He led the way from building to building, shadow to shadow, until they reached a tall fence with a gate. It was locked with a thick chain and padlock.

"Cover me."

Danny stood there looking around while Leo worked at the chain with the wire cutters. It took a while, but it was quiet. The chain snapped, the gate opened. They headed through to find more empty shacks and the land sloping up. When they reached the top of the incline Leo stopped. They had come up against a tall wooden wall. "Where do we go now?" he murmured, almost to himself.

"Don't you remember? We came down through that window, last time." Danny nodded upwards, to the gap maybe ten feet up the wall.

"How the fuck are we going to get up there?" Danny felt the other man brush past him and move forward to contemplate the window. Danny found himself watching Leo. His presence was so firm, so real, but then Danny had thought that before, and had been wrong. What it must have been like for Leo, before, the last time they were here, when he was just a part of him, what that had felt like? Now wasn't the time to ask about that though. He glanced behind him and had a flash of inspiration.

"We could try moving that." Danny pointed to the wagon, a little way down the hill.

They each took a shaft and pulled. The wagon creaked forward slowly, sending up a cloud of grey dust. It pulled back heavily on them as they dragged it up the hill. Danny was sure they would be heard as they manoeuvred the wagon under the broken window. But there was no sound of running feet, no shouts of alarm, as Danny took a step back, breathing heavily, to admire their work.

"Come on," Leo said. He was already standing on the wagon. He reached out a hand and helped Danny up. They looked up at the window. "You give me a boost and I'll pull you up." Danny crouched down, boosted Leo up, and then got pulled up himself. Toppling over the window, he got up and adjusted his glasses. They stood in a kitchen. Danny led the way through the house, rooms bare bones of wood, glassless windows and empty doorframes, to the front door. He was about to open it when he stopped still, hand outstretched. There were voices outside.

Leo looked through the crack between the door and frame. "Two of them, coming this way, armed." He and Danny shared a look and moved backwards, out of the front room, to separate adjacent rooms.

The front door opened and two men entered. A skinny man in his early twenties and a baseball cap, and taller man with long dark hair in a ponytail. They hesitated a little before moving in, saw the silent room and visibly relaxed. The first one smiled. "This is it, end of the line."

The second man looked a little more nervous. "Great. So let's go back now."

Baseball cap moved further into the room. He was waving his gun around, Danny could smell the drink reeking off him. "No, we have to check this place out. Check it for burglars." He laughed.

The second still lingered in the doorway. He looked uncertain, like he was trying not to look afraid, just slightly disgusted by the house. The first man stepped towards him and took his hand, pulled him into the hallway.

"Or maybe there's something else we can do." They moved closer.

"Not here." The dark-haired man looked around him, like someone might be about to appear.

"Relax. No-one's watching." The first man pulled the second into a kiss, which the second returned gradually. Behind the door Danny hesitated. It seemed kind of wrong to do anything when they were like this, he looked behind him. He could get out the window, but get down the hill without being seen from the front door? Too risky. He could see Leo, across, just, backed away from the other doorway. He was watching, didn't seem to be in a hurry to move. But they had to hurry. Think of the Katherine and Josh. That strengthened his resolve. He looked up, trying to catch Leo's eye. The men were in the centre of the room, as far as possible from the front door without seeing either of them. The moment was perfect. When Leo looked up at him he nodded. Danny unsheafed his knife from his belt and walked forward. In three short paces he grabbed the second man from behind, held him to his body and slit his throat. Leo did the same from the opposite side. The two men looked at each other as the blood drained from their necks, their bodies thrashed but the movement left their eyes. Danny dropped his guy as he turned into a heavy lump of flesh. Leo cleaned off his knife on the shirt of his victim while Danny walked over to the door. He wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.

"It looks clear."

Leo joined him. "Let's go, stick to the side." As they made their way down the hill Leo glanced at Danny. "You ok?"

"It doesn't seem right, killing them when they were doing that."

"They were fucking. Not some holy act."

"They weren't fucking yet." Danny said quietly, though that was hardly the point.

There was a barn up ahead, the light in the window making it stand out against the darkening sky. On the wind Danny heard fragments of voices, shouting and laughing. They approached slowly and stealthily. "If we can, silent," Leo breathed. Danny, so close his body felt like it was part of Leo's moving in sync with him, nodded. They reached the building and walked up a ramp inside. Creeping past hay bales, the conversation and laughter became louder, clearer. Someone was having a good time. A window ran along the front of the barn, along with a hole and a pulley for raising hay bales. Voices rose up from beneath. In the yard ahead a group sat around a makeshift camp fire, drinking and chatting. Many of them wore camouflage gear, though some had everyday dress. A snatch of song rang out.

"Some guards."

"These aren't guards. They're…" Leo seemed stumped for once for anything bad enough to say.

"Whatever they are, there's a lot of them, and they have guns. How do we get past?"

Leo looked down at the yard, then around them. His eyes settled on the burning gas-light. "We cause a distraction." He pulled the lamp out of the bracket. There was another hay hole a little way down the barn. He stood poised above it, sheltering the light with his hand. Then he dropped it through the hole, onto the hay below.

They ran for the window before the shouting started. As the yelling began and the yard cleared they climbed out onto the beam and jumped into the hay below. Leo ran for the padlocked gate ahead but Danny stopped him, pulled him towards a stable to the side, they ran through, the back wall was missing. Danny glanced back. If anyone noticed them they were to busy to do anything about it. The barn was going up in flames.

On the other side of the stable was a dirt path, lit only by the moon. "This place is a maze," Leo said, then immediately pulled Danny back with him into the shadow of a large wheel of electrical wire. Someone was coming towards them. A flashlight snapped on and they saw a man unlock the gate ahead of them and run past to the barn. This man was dressed more professionally then their previous opponents, and armed more professionally too. Leo grabbed Danny's arm, pulled him quickly out of the shadows and to the gate. "Come on. Stealth if we can, they're going to try to put it out before alerting anyone. Idiots." He sounded exhilarated. Whether that was because they were doing well or because he now had a better opponent Danny didn't know.

Through the gate, Leo led the way off the dirt track and down a slope to the side. Danny could hear something moving ahead. Maybe the wind, maybe soft footsteps. "Can you hear that?" he whispered. He turned to see nothing. Leo was gone. He walked forward further into the tall grass. Hesitant steps, every sound was coming in closer, louder. Beyond the sway of grass, low and almost inaudible. Those were footsteps, behind him, faster. Danny kept moving. He held his knife in front of him, his other hand on the gun in his belt. The grass grew almost to his head and he crouched down so it did cover. The moon was hiding now, this little valley in shadow. But ahead of him was something darker. A mouth, a circle that he moved closer to automatically. Darkness was shelter.

There was a noise behind and he turned in the stone tunnel. The moon came out, slipping from its cloud cover, and a man stood where he had, bathed in light. He held a flashlight and he shone it at Danny, blinding him just after he saw the gun. He heard something crash down from above the drain. The flashlight was thrown off to the side, bounced twice and went out. There was a dark shape where the man stood, moving silently. Danny walked forwards as Leo stood up. "Which way now?"

Danny led the way this time, up, closer to the path. He could see the building ahead. They ran silently across the track, to the cover of the shacks on the other side.

They walked along the side of a wooden building until they heard a noise ahead and crouched down next to the wall. Someone was coming towards them, soft steps and no light. Leo tapped Danny on the shoulder and gestured towards the window above. Danny climbed through, taking the hint. He heard Leo move around the building behind him, not following him in. Looking up, he saw a wooden altar and realised he was in the church he had seen from the hill. He slipped behind a cardboard box next to the window. He was still as he heard footsteps climb the stairs into the church and come closer. Then there was a snapping noise and a shuffle of feet. He broke cover. Leo stood behind the guy, his knife buried in the guard's shoulder, the guard was raising his gun, turning. Danny leapt forward, sliding over the box, to grab the gun and pull it from the man's hand. His knife impaled the hunter in the thigh as he wrenched the gun from his hands. The guard was trying to scream but Leo had his hand over his mouth. Leo withdrew his hand just to shove the knife in, blade first. Danny stood up and sliced across the guard's throat with his own blade, stopping him once and for all.

Leo let go of the body and ran to the door. Danny picked up the guard's flashlight and followed. He felt like he was on autopilot now, following Leo, trusting him to get him through this. Leo looked happier than he had in a long time.

They moved back into the dark, slowing, listening. As one they walked in the same direction.

Over the bridge, they passed the fake building facades with no trouble. It all seemed deserted here. They came to a wire fence. Danny looked back, seeing where they could double back, but Leo was already crouching down, wire clippers out. He pulled a door open and Danny followed him through. The land sloped sharply down and the grass after the fence was long and overgrown, there was another mesh fence at the bottom of the hill. Danny moved forward and Leo put out a hand, stopping him. Danny stopped and took another look. Beyond the fence was a small concrete yard, and then the entrance to the main studio building. The only light came from a small red bulb above the door, leaving most of the yard in darkness. Leo pulled out the sniper rifle from his bag, set it up and looked through. "One guy, armed." He paused, moving the rifle around as though looking for something.

Danny stared into the shadows but could barely see anything, only shapes in the dark. "What do you see?"

"There's a security camera by the door. There must be more hunters inside. I can take out the guard, but you're going to have to destroy the camera first." Leo handed Danny the rifle.

Danny took hold of it uncertainly. "You're sure?"

"Yeah, you've done it before. You're not a bad shot, if you can keep your cool. Take a look."

Danny did. He could see the solitary, bored-looking guard leaning against the wall. The camera above the door angled to view the yard. "How are you going to get close without being seen?"

"Wont be a problem. Wait for me to get close enough to the guard, then take him out. As long as they don't know where we are, we've got the upper hand."

Leo moved back into the grass. Danny watched the green-lit yard through the scope. Though he was looking for him he missed the minute Leo entered the yard and was shocked when his sight trailed over him, just a few paces from the guard. Leo was moving forward steadily. In a few seconds he would be close enough. Danny took aim at the camera and pulled the trigger. It burst into pieces with a pop from the silencer.

He moved back to Leo, saw him pulling the guard, throat cut, into deeper shadows. Danny reloaded. Light sprang into the courtyard as the door to the building opened and two men ran out. Danny hurriedly shoved the last bullet in and raised the gun to aim. The men went separate ways. He followed the one who was heading towards Leo.

"Turn on the floodlights." Danny heard one hunter shout. Looking up he saw a new man standing in the doorway, turning to run back inside. He aimed quickly and fired but his bullet hit empty space where the man had stood. Throwing the gun down, Danny jumped up. He had to get in there quick or Leo was dead. He ran, slipping down the slope and landing against the fence next to the yard. The man nearest spun around, looking straight at him. Danny pulled out his handgun, shot the hunter between the eyes. As the guard fell bullets spattered the ground around him. Danny ducked down. The other hunter was still out there. He needed to find the hole in the fence that Leo must have made to get through. But then there was more gunfire, hitting his instincts and making him freeze. He saw bullets spark off the tarmac on the other side of the yard, sparks of light in the darkness. The spotlights flashed on, illuminating Leo, and the second guard as he died. Danny saw the hole then, an empty circle in the mesh fence to his side, and slipped through as Leo walked over.

"So much for a quiet entrance."

Danny looked up. Leo had a cut on his cheek, blood seeping down from where a bullet had grazed him, otherwise he looked miraculously uninjured. "Sorry."

"Doesn't matter," Leo said. "Could only keep up that stealth shit for so long."

As they walked towards the door the third man ran out. Leo raised his gun, shot him, a volley of shots in the chest so he slammed back through the door. They stepped over the body, into a huge and brightly lit garage. Leo took off running across the floor and Danny followed. Now they had started shooting their position would be easy to pin down. Someone would be looking for them.

At the other side of the empty garage was an elevator. Danny pressed the down button. This place looked so unused, he was a little surprised when the doors beeped open. He exchanged a look with Leo. Leo's eyes showed clearly his doubt, his complete lack of belief in this situation. Danny didn't exactly disagree. But what else could he do? He got in the lift, Leo following, standing close to him. He pressed down and the elevator started to move. He was more surprised when he felt Leo's arm move next to him, a hand find his own and fingers tighten and entwine with his. He knew Leo didn't think they would be getting out of here. But he couldn't let himself think like that. He had too many people relying on him. He squeezed back.

The doors opened onto a cramped landing with stairs descending. They crept down, weapons drawn, into a TV control room and then out into the studio. The set was deserted, but with all the lights on. The stillness and silence made it feel like this place had been waiting for them, something was about to begin. Dust and bullet holes covered the plywood walls. Looked like it had hardly been touched since the last time they were here.

It was Danny who pulled Leo back this time. When they reached the end of the set, just before they stepped out into the corridor he remembered, he got a feeling. He grabbed Leo's arm, and pulled him into the room next to them. The footsteps were light, appearing a second before the man in the doorway. He shone an unnecessary light into the room, hesitated a second, before turning back the way he had come. Leo followed after him. Danny walked in his steps, watching as he hesitated at the door, taking only a second to check for other guards, before he was moving swiftly and silently up behind the hunter. The butt of Leo's gun rose up and connected with the back of the man's head. The guard fell silently, arms outstretched but crumbling before he hit the ground. Leo pulled out his knife and knelt above the prone body.

"Stop!" Danny said, hurrying over. Leo looked up at him. "We don't need to kill him." Leo gave him a look, which clearly said 'what is this bullshit I have to listen to now'. Danny was already searching in his bag, pulling out a length of twine. "Besides, he's unconscious, you won't get any fun out of him."

"This isn't about fun. Do you think he wouldn't kill you if he could?" Danny didn't answer, busy binding the man's hands and feet together.

"Come on," Leo said as he stood up. He led the way down the corridor. They moved from locker to locker at first, then broke into a run as they realised it was clear. The door at the end of the corridor was padlocked with a chain too thick to cut. Leo shot it and slammed in through the doors, gun raised. He moved into a little room to the side quickly, Danny shadowing him. Stacks of recording equipment filled the room. In the distance Danny heard movement, a door slam. He recognised this place, part of the set where they filmed that kids programme, what was its name? "We can go through the sets, there's plenty of cover," he whispered.

Leo carefully moved to the next door, crouched down and crept through. He had the gun in one hand and something Danny couldn't quite make out in the other. They made their way through the sets, until they came to a low brick wall. Danny glanced back. A patch of far too green grass, flowers with faces. He definitely remembered this show from his childhood. Some surreal thing about a group of angry looking animals who lived on a tiny planet. It had always been the outside scenes which got to him, showing that the madness wasn't confined to the house.

Leo nudged him. Danny recognised the look on his face, 'Focus'. He heard a noise and froze, realising then there was someone else in the room. Next to him Leo stood up, breaking cover. Danny almost panicked then, the world seemed to slow down and he had an urge to stand up and just shoot blindly, let loose, and had to fight to stop himself. He felt like he was falling and needed to catch himself. Leo swung out whatever was in his hands and the guard was pulled back three or four feet, until he hit the other side of the wall where Leo stood. Leo pulled the cable tight around the guard's neck. The guard was flailing, trying to keep his grip on the gun slipping from his fingers. Danny came to life, leaned over the wall and used the butt of his rifle to hit the gun out of the man's hand. Leo had the wire held in both hands, twisted around the man's neck, pulling him back so he was bent backwards over the short wall. The man was grabbing at the wire, trying to shout but short of breath, his face red turning purple. Danny thought he saw Leo loosen the twine, let it relax a second before pulling back again. He knew Leo could finish this now if he wanted to, and knew why he was doing this, to get a rise out of him, because he had not let him kill the last man.

He felt sick and he brushed past, ignoring Leo, who didn't look at him. He jumped over the wall and moved forward out of the set and up a small flight of stairs, into a dimly lit area with amps and other recording equipment scattered around. Something moved ahead and he raised his revolver and fired blindly, letting off six rounds and emptying the gun. Leo ran up behind him, finally inspired to end his game and they approached the body together. "What are you doing? You have to be more careful," Leo said.

Danny looked at him. There was no need to mention the strangled corpse back there. He checked the body, kicking it over onto its back while it tremored, but all real life was already gone.

"They know where we are now." Leo muttered as he followed Danny to the next door. They walked through another corridor, into a room filled with lockers. It appeared to be empty, and when Danny stopped and listened he could hear nothing. Leo bumped into him, pushing him out of the way. Unlike Danny, Leo seemed far more tense now there was no one to fight. Danny knew he felt there was something wrong with this situation, and knew he was right. But Danny was focused on only one thing. At the next door he grabbed Leo's arm, holding him back. Something was telling him to exercise caution. For some reason his heart was raising in his chest, well something was threatening to come up anyway. He opened the door hesitantly, inch by inch, so smooth and slow he had to hold his breath. He slipped through, still silent, though he saw no one in the room. Leo followed his lead, in fact he did it better than him. Danny turned and was surprised to see him so close behind. The room was some sort of control room, a long panel with buttons and dials along one side, with a window above it looking over the studio, a soundproof room in the centre. Leo moved through the room, stopping to check the sound booth was clear. Danny walked over to the window. Below lay a studio, 'The Terry Helmut Show' a talk show Danny couldn't remember ever watching. There was a stage and on the stage sat two chairs, and on the chairs sat two people. Danny looked and then he couldn't look any more. He slipped down to the ground. By this time Leo had come over and he took Danny's place, appraising the situation. Leo knelt down next to Danny, grabbed his chin in his hand none too gently, forcing him to look up. "Get a hold of yourself. That's your kids down there. You'll have time to sit around and cry later."

Danny stood up. Leo handed him the sniper rifle and he took it adjusted the aim. He was calm now, he knew what he had to do. He barely noticed Leo leave, heading down the corridor that would lead him to the studio below. He placed the rifle over the control desk. He lined up his shot. He had two bullets. There were two guards. He couldn't miss.

He shot the first one between the eyes, the man's neck snapping back as the bullet hit. He did not stop to see the expressions on the faces of his children. He trained to the next man who was running back, looking up at him, trying to get a clear shot. Danny focused, picked his moment. The guard crumpled to the floor, a clean shot. He swept over the floor for any hidden guards. He heard Leo shoot the lock and the door swing open and hit the wall through the echo. He crouched back on his heels, lowering himself and the gun from the control panel. He sat there for a second. Now it was done, suddenly he was hesitant. But they were down there alone with Leo, he remembered, and at that he stood up and started running. He hit the bottom of the stairs and pushed the double doors open, jogging into the room a little too fast. Leo spun round from behind the chair where he was untying Danny's son's bonds, a half raised gun until he saw who it was and relaxed. Danny's daughter, standing next to him, froze and gave a sort of muted shriek, like a small animal which has just seen a predator. Her eyes were wide and fixed on her father's. Her brother struggled away from the chair as soon as Leo finished cutting the ropes. He stood next to her, his expression much the same. "What is he doing here?" he asked Leo.

"We're going to get you out of here," Leo said, half-heartedly.

Danny understood why. He saw the other two entrances to this room, the way the kids had been here waiting, like bait. Maybe it wasn't too late, maybe if they hurried they could get away. What if they went back the way they had come? He looked up at the window just in time to see someone move up there. "Get over to the wall!" he shouted. Kat just stood there staring at him and Josh looked away, gazing angrily around the room as though looking for someone else to blame for this.

"Come on," Leo urged them. "Unless you want to get shot." They followed him to the stairs by the far door, climbing up out of sight of the overlook.

Danny stayed back, a few paces away, knowing it was best he didn't approach. "We need to leave, now."

Kat hadn't taken her eyes from his, but now shock was fading, being replaced with anger, hate. "You killed her. Why? How could you?" she asked. There was fear and anger in her voice but something else too, which Danny couldn't quite place.

Josh hadn't looked at his father since he first came in. He seemed to be doing his best to pretend he wasn't there. Suddenly he mumbled something and broke away from the group, striding up the remaining stairs and pushing open the door. Danny's warning stuck in his throat. A gun fired, just one and the teenager stumbled back. Danny ran forward, and so did Kat.

"No!" she screamed, getting between him and her brother, who she ran to as he fell to the ground. Danny ran past to the door instead, slamming it shut and bracing himself against it. He expected to feel hunters pushing their way in at any minute, but it didn't move. He looked behind him, where Leo crouched down over Josh. The boy was pale, all the blood drained from his face but he sat up with a little help. He looked at his arm, which hung, limp and immobile. Leo felt his arm, found the spot as the boy winced. "Got him in the shoulder. Arm's broken but he can still move." Leo reached in his bag, pulling out the first aid kit.

Kat stood next to them, alternating keeping an eye on Josh and warily looking at Danny. "Who are you?" she asked Leo. "How do you know him?" she said the last word like it was something disgusting.

"You don't want to know. Trust me." Leo was bandaging Josh's wound, quickly, efficiently, but not as well as Danny could have done. Josh held still, watching Leo as he did, still refusing to acknowledge Danny was there. They trusted Leo, Danny realised, in the way you instinctively trusted someone when the only other options were the man who killed your mother and a crazy director who had kidnapped you.

"What do we do now?" Leo looked up at him, dropping Josh's arm in the makeshift sling.

"There are still guards in the corridor," Danny said. He could hear them through the door, waiting.

"They're above us too," Leo said as he and Kat helped Josh up.

Danny looked over at the door on the far side of the room. The hunters hadn't made any move to come downstairs, but they didn't need to. Starkweather's troops were free to wait up there and pick them off at their leisure, after all the four of them couldn't stay here forever. Danny took a step forward and as he did so a voice echoed through the room. He looked over at the speakers next to the stage. The others did too.

"Ah, Daniel, nice to see you made it. Now, there's no need to hide away. Why don't you come out here? We can have a little chat."

Danny knew what he had to do. Before Starkweather stopped speaking he walked past the other three, crossing the room, over to the door he had entered initially. He knew the hunters above would have a good line on him from here. He had to hope they had been given orders not to shoot on sight. Apparently they had. He forced the rifle between the door handles, jamming it shut. He quickly crossed back across the room, not looking up at the overlook, not wanting to tempt fate.

When he got back Leo had taken his place at the door, holding it shut. His children stared at him as he walked past. He glanced back, at the door held by the sniper rifle. "That'll buy you some time."

Leo stepped forward, backing him into the corner, away from the kids. "No."

"I can cause a distraction," Danny said softly.

"I'll do it."

"No. You need to get the kids out. They won't go with me."

"We both know what happens when you die. You tend to forget things. And I need you to remember this, because if we get out alive, you owe me big time."

Danny brushed past Leo, who grabbed his arm, pulling him back. "Get the kids out for me, please." Danny tried to shake him off, looking straight ahead at the door.

He felt Leo move close to him, arm around his back pulling them together until they touched. He felt breath by his ear, and then lips against his jawbone and for a second teeth. "You better remember me," Leo whispered as he pulled away.

Danny walked forward, pushing open the door and out into the corridor. The guards outside trained rifles on him, but moved aside to let him through. He walked a little way, to where the two routes out of the studio met at stairs. Starkweather came forward to meet him and the hunters closed ranks behind.

"Drop the weapon," the hunter next to Starkweather ordered. Danny still gripped the pistol. He held it in front of him, lowered by his stomach, in both hands.

"I want to talk to you."

"Give him the gun," Starkweather said. Danny didn't move. Starkweather looked at the guards behind him. "Go get the rest."

Danny raised the gun to eye level and aimed. "No."

All around him Danny heard the hunters react. "Now Daniel," Starkweather raised his hand, "what do you think you will accomplish by killing me? Do you think you will go free? Do you think any of you will ever see daylight again?"

Danny pulled the trigger.

He had heard your life flashed before your eyes at these times, but there was only one memory in his head.

…

Twelve hours earlier.

Leo sat on the wooden floor of the motel while Danny paced back and forth. It wasn't until he almost tripped over a brown paper bag, and noticed it's strange heaviness as he kicked it out of the way, that he took any notice of what Leo was doing. He looked down. "What are those?"

Leo was surrounded by the packages. He had a roll of tape and was carefully attaching them to each other. "Security. I'm not going to be taken alive again."

"They're explosives?" The bags were thin enough to be worn under clothing. "So you're planning on blowing yourself up?"

"Not planning on it. Just in case."

"That's crazy. It could go off at any time."

"No, nothing short of me getting shot in the chest could set this shit off. But if it goes, it'll take out a bunch of those bastards too, everyone in the surrounding area."

"Right, and what about the kids?"

"They're your problem. Like you said I'm not going to be anywhere near them am I?"

Danny was quiet for a minute thinking out the implications of the plan. "Can you make one for me?"

Leo looked up. "Why?"

"I'm the only hope they've got. I can't risk being captured. At least if I die there's a chance I can come back for them."

Leo shrugged and taped down another packet. "If you're going to detonate don't stand too close to me."

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There was noise, no feeling. He was waking before he knew he had not been aware. He was a heap in the middle of the room. Blackened and cold, the room stunk of ash, the ceiling fallen in around him. There was meat burnt and spattered over the wall, stuck on like a scab. He was red and black, a thousand tears in his skin. He curled in a ball, numb in places, pain in others, coming back, pieces missing, no sight, the smell of his own blood, his own roasted flesh. He curled in a ball, in on himself. He lay there for a while and felt himself grow stronger, feeling returning. When he opened his eyes he could see the scars healing, trace the lines receding along his skin, beneath the sheet of blood.

With effort he stood. It was night. He could see through the holes in the ceiling. He didn't know how long he had been out for. He walked back through the destroyed corridor. The doors had been blown off their hinges into the studio, but it looked in better condition than the hallway, the full blast hadn't reached back here. It was empty.

He turned and made his way out of the compound.


	15. Chapter 15

The motel door swung open in front of him. "Hello?" Danny called.

Tubs of food littered the floor, blankets fallen off the bed, a stray pistol discarded by the television. The room looked untouched from the last time he saw it. Danny kept his hand on the gun lodged under his belt. But there was no sign of a struggle, no blood spatter on the walls. In fact there was no sign anyone had been here. Maybe he was wrong, Leo and the kids wouldn't have come here, but then where? He hadn't seen their bodies on the way out, he was sure of it.

Turning to walk out the door, he almost ran into someone standing behind him. "Leo!" Danny jumped, his hand half reaching for the gun before he stopped himself.

Leo stepped back, looked him up and down, as though checking that he was all there. "We're in the next room now. Didn't feel like cleaning." He jerked his thumb to indicate next door.

Danny followed Leo into the next room. It was certainly cleaner, though starting to look equally lived in. Leo turned in the centre of the room, watching him, how he would react. He looked wary. He wore a dark blue t-shirt and grey sweatpants; he looked more casual than Danny had ever seen him. Danny was actually surprised by how relieved he was to see him. Then he realised the room was empty except for Leo and him. "Where are the kids?" He closed the door behind him.

"They wouldn't stay. Don't worry, they're ok. I got them back here. But they wanted to leave."

"You let them go?"

Leo gave Danny a look that he figured was supposed to be sympathetic. "There was nothing I could say to make them stay. I decided you wouldn't want me to force them. Wouldn't have improved their opinion of you."

"Where are they?" Danny was still standing by the door. He could feel something rising in him, part doubt and anger, but mostly fear.

"They wanted to get as far away as possible. I took them to the airport and gave them cash for a ticket."

"You don't know where they are?"

Leo walked over to the phone. He dialled a number. "I thought you might have trouble believing me. So I got them to get a cell you can call to check in with them. Took some convincing." Leo held out the receiver to him.

Danny stepped forward and took the phone from him. It rang for several minutes while Leo went and sat on the bed.

Eventually the ringing stopped. "Hello?" His daughter's voice, cautious.

"Hello Kat." There was silence on the line. "Are you ok? Is Josh there?"

"We're ok." Danny thought he could hear a muffled sound, like she had put her hand over the receiver and spoken to someone. "Josh just went out. But he's ok. We both are." Danny recognised the undercurrent he had heard in her voice, now distance had dissolved the fear, disappointment. He wondered if she always sounded like that now, or if there were times when she was happy, when she wasn't talking to him.

"Good. I'm…" He trailed off and started again. "Look, don't tell me where you are. I understand why you don't want to. That's fine. You deserve a new start. But if you ever need anything, if you're ever in trouble…" He paused, unsure what to say and the voice on the other end of the line was silent. He wanted her to ask "Why?" and then he could attempt some sort of explanation as to how things got this way, even if he was guessing at half of it, but she didn't, just said "Ok," like that was the end of it.

"Good luck."

"Goodbye."

Danny put the phone down on the desk and stood there for a moment. He felt a shiver run through him. Then he heard Leo move behind him and felt strong arms around him. He closed his eyes for a moment and relaxed back against Leo's chest. Then he tried to move away, met some resistance and ended up turning into the other man's embrace. Leo kissed him, initially he tried to pull away but again he found himself relaxing into the kiss, enjoying the taste of Leo's tongue in his mouth, his body beneath his hand. He had expected Leo to taste of death if that was possible, or nothing, or have some synthetic taste about him. Instead his mouth was hot, human, he tasted of flesh with a faint salty aftertaste. Danny kissed back harder as he felt Leo press against him, knowing he was aiming for the wall. If this was going to be a battle he wasn't going to back down.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Above him, Leo looked into his eyes and smiled. "We could do anything here, and it wouldn't matter." Leo kissed at his nipple, teeth tightening over it, squeezing. Danny flinched and he looked up. "I could bite this off and it would just grow back."

"Don't," Danny said, steady voiced, but tense.

"I could kill you, you'd come back. Or you me," he said hopefully, then seeing Danny's look. "Or not."

Leo let go of Danny's wrists and lowered himself so he was laying half on top of Danny, looking into his eyes, Danny reached around Leo's back, pulling him closer. Leo lifted a hand to his hair and stroked it affectionately. "But there's a lot you haven't done. Maybe we should start small."

"Maybe we shouldn't start at all," Danny said. But it was kind of a pointless protest at this point, with Leo's taste on his lips and body above him. He opened his mouth as Leo reached in for a kiss and he enjoyed it. It was a distraction from everything else, but it was more than that. Once again he was shocked by how warm, how alive Leo felt. He wanted to hold onto that, it was something different to anything else in this place, something that felt real and something that was good.

Somewhere in the back of his mind Danny could feel an ice cold spreading. Somewhere there was a body shutting down. But he could ignore that, when he focused on Leo, Leo's mouth, Leo's hands and Leo's cock as it brushed against his own. He could close everything else out and not care because he felt more alive in this moment then his whole life.

Leo leaned back. He took Danny's glasses off and placed them on the table. "Come on, it'll be fun."

"Yeah, ok." Danny couldn't remember exactly what he was agreeing to, but he could make a good guess. How long could this last? He could feel the world slowing down to a standstill around him. In the real world his time might be limited, but here that was up to him. He could make a minute last an eternity, if he wanted. Danny pulled Leo down to him, kissed him hard. After all, if he and Leo were going to co-exist here they were either going to end up fucking or killing each other. And fucking sounded like a lot more fun.


End file.
